The redemption of Richie Hogan
Expert analysis on this weekend’s All-Ireland hurling semi-finals
ONE criticism which can’t be thrown at Brian Cody is that he is the type to make excuses, but the sending off of Richie Hogan in last year’s All-Ireland SHC final is one which clearly sticks in the Kilkenny manager’s craw.
The Cats trailed Tipperary by a point, 1-8 to 0-10, when Hogan was given his marching orders by James Owens in the 33rd minute before losing the remainder by 2-17 to 0-10 as Liam Sheedy inflicted the heaviest defeat of Cody’s glittering reign.
It was Kilkenny’s biggest championship reversal since Offaly filleted them by 16 points in 1990, with many believing that they folded the tent and waved the white flag to Tipp as a consequence of the numerical disadvantage.
A fired-up Cody spoke in the Citywest Hotel the following morning about how it “impacted massively” on the result, with the 11-time All-Ireland-winning boss still struggling to get his head around the contentious red card for a head-high, upper-arm charge on Cathal Barrett.
“Certainly to scapegoat him (Hogan) would be outrageous. He didn’t produce the red card,” a visibly frustrated Cody said. “Do we believe it was a red card? No, I don’t. I mean I was very close to it, for me, the referee didn’t know.
“In his expression, his body language, everything about him suggested (he didn’t know). He went around and he spoke to different people about it, even looked at the player involved and then came along and flashed a red card.
“Am I happy about the incident? No. Am I complaining about the result? No. Tipperary are All-Ireland champions and fair play to them.”
Cody has never been anything but gracious in defeat, but he remained adamant that “the game was certainly decided in the 33rd minute” and the cloud hanging over their 14-point loss has not softened with time.
A repeat of the 2019 final was aired for the Kilkenny squad during lockdown, but there would be no heads in hands watching an excruciating second half, instead it was cut short in the 32nd minute before red mist descended as Cody had seen everything he wanted to.
The takeaway point was not to be what went wrong, but what went right as the positives were accentuated. They were neck and neck with Tipp until Hogan was forced to make the walk of shame to the stands for what they still see as an injustice.
Colin Fennelly didn’t fudge the question when asked recently if the sending off still plays on his mind, and it’s probably a decent insight into the hurt which the Cats still harbour.
“It’s something you think about all the time, definitely. It’s something you always wonder. It wrecks your head and you don’t want to really talk about it too much because it will wreck your head even more. Then other people want to talk about it,” Fennelly said.
“You kind of want to avoid it more than anything, because he’s a huge player. It’s just all what-ifs at the end of the day. We’ve won so many All-Irelands with other teams saying whatifs and we’ve lost many with what-ifs. You can’t go down that route.”
There’s a strong sense of righting the wrongs of 15 months ago with Cody still steering the ship, while the addition of DJ Carey and Martin Comerford have added a fresh impetus to his backroom team and taken things in a new direction yet again.
Hogan, who admitted that 2019 could have been his last inter-county season before it ended in the most unsavoury manner, is also intent on rewriting history, with the 2014 Hurler of the Year refusing to be remembered for the wrong reasons.
As a seven-time All-Ireland winner, his place among the pantheon of greats was already secure, but the Danesfort dynamo didn’t allow much time to feel sorry for himself and he faced the media storm head on just two days after the final.
Contacting ‘Off The Ball’ to give his side of the controversy, Hogan spoke of his firm belief that “there’s absolutely no way it was a sending off ” and how talk of an elbow charge was “absolutely crazy” before outlining the extraordinary measures which he must go to in order to keep crippling back pain at bay and play.
A series of injections on various ailments in recent seasons, the need for a physio to be on hand before being able to even consider taking part in training as well as having to start his warm-up more than two hours before throw-in just to make it onto the pitch summed up the sacrifices being made to don the black and amber.
It helped to nix the story somewhat and allowed him to disappear from the spotlight, although his role as commercial manager for the GAA/ GPA meant that he could hardly brood in peace with hurling never absent given the regular visits to Croke Park for work-related reasons.
There was no engagement on Twitter from August 8 of last year until March 31, 2020, while he didn’t post
on his personal Instagram account for the guts of a year after the All-Ireland final defeat as he disappeared into the background and set about producing the goods on the pitch once again.
It was never going to be easy given the physical disadvantages which he now faces on a daily basis, but having travelled from Dublin back to Kilkenny for county training with Hogan for many years, David Herity never doubted his mental strength to do so.
No obstacle would be too high for him to overcome, according to the former Kilkenny goalkeeper who also highlighted how “strong-willed” Hogan is to achieve his goals.
“Richie is a very strong-willed lad. He wouldn’t let this get to him or stick to him as much as a normal player.
He has a lot of experience now at this stage. He would just have been turning around and trying to get himself fitter and stronger than ever,” Herity says.
“It wouldn’t cause any doubts in his head. He would firmly believe that he didn’t mean to do any wrong and that’s why he’s back. He’s a funny aul fish at times, we’d come down in the car and he could open a pack of jellies.
“He’d eat half the jellies and then he’d down the window and throw the rest of them out. I’d be like ‘what the f*** are doing?’ and he’d say ‘Well, if they’re in the car I’ll eat them, but at least if they’re on the road I won’t.’
“I don’t know anyone else who would do that, who’d be as strongwilled to do that. He’d stop off at the shop, get himself a bar, get himself a drink and he could eat four or five Maltesers and throw the rest out the window.”
It’s only when Herity details how injury ravaged Hogan’s body actually is and the complications which he must overcome each day that one can truly appreciate what it takes for him to tog out and put it all on the line.
“I know sitting in a car would cripple him, I would have travelled with him for seven years with him going to training and I know how difficult it was for him, especially at times last year with the discs in his back.
“He’s had a lot of injections into his body between his wrists and his back to try and get him to the point where he’s just out playing. He was box jumping about four-fifths his height three years ago,” Herity says.
“And then to the point where he couldn’t get out of the car or was finding it very difficult to get out of a car after training or he maybe had to take the next day off work after playing a match, he was absolutely goosed.”
The severity of his injury problems combined with the drama around his dismissal made his Leinster final cameo against Galway all the more remarkable as he produced a piece of hurling wizardry that will go down in folklore for many years to come.
Having been called upon by Cody in the 45th minute with the game slipping away, he electrified proceedings firing 1-2 and ransacking the Galway defence with a goal of such sublime natural skill that he made it look like he was taking candy from a baby.
Hogan had his redemption, as well as his hands on the Bob O’Keeffe Cup, as he guided Kilkenny home.
“Richie’s not someone who smiles a whole lot but yet you see him after the Leinster final, he was absolutely over the moon. You could see it off the TV pictures, he was thrilled with what he did,” Herity outlines.
“It’s an indication to himself that he still has the ability to go out and do what he’s doing. It’s been an amazing 15 months for him to go from the lows of that to the highs of the Leinster final, it’s brilliant to see because I know how much he puts into it.”
Cody lauded him as a “fighter” who “contributed really powerfully when he came on”, while a rare tweet from Hogan in the wake of that victory showed just what it meant to him.
“Thanks to those who sent me messages over the weekend. I won’t forget it. We are in a hugely privileged position to be in a place to bring some joy to people’s lives during this lockdown. I won’t forget that either,” Hogan wrote to his 24,000 followers.
Herity believes lockdown was “a blessing” to the 32-year-old as it allowed him time to rebuild his body and his appetite for destruction with a 0-16 haul in Danefort’s Kilkenny SHC preliminary quarter-final loss against Mullinavat a sign of things to come.
The arrival of Mickey Comerford – who has also played a key role in keeping Cillian Buckley fit despite chronic knee trouble – as strength and conditioning coach has left Hogan jumping out of his skin and that’s music to Kilkenny fan’s ears.
Hogan is named at full-forward for tonight’s All-Ireland semi-final against Waterford – in place of Fennelly – with Cody once again placing trust in his lieutenant as they aim to scratch their five-year itch and get their hands back on Liam MacCarthy.
“It’s an indication that he’s back in Cody’s good books again, that he showed so much that it’s come full circle again from someone who was only coming on and playing the last 15 minutes and all of a sudden now he’s trusted to start,” Herity says.
Winning Leinster is one thing, but the only redemption in Hogan or Cody’s mind is reaching the promised land and putting the sour end of 2019 firmly to bed. You wouldn’t put it past them either.