‘CRIMINAL’
Brian Cody refused to undo a great wrong with an apology, argues SHANE McGRATH
SO WE all walk away, then? Is that it? We forget it ever happened and we devote ourselves to stories that squeeze out anything but good news? Does it require just seven words to tidy up an incident that highlights a major problem for Gaelic games? This is a challenge as urgently important as burnout and fixtures and all the other anxieties causing hands to be wrung in despair. But are we supposed to shrug and say so what?
‘I’m not even interested in discussing it,’ said Brian Cody this week when asked about his comments on referee Barry Kelly from the end of last season.
Twenty-four hours after Kilkenny won the All-Ireland, their 10th in the brilliant reign of Cody, the manager decided to revisit Kelly’s decision to give a free to Tipperary late in the drawn match that, if converted, would have won them the title. Cody said the call was ‘criminal’, and he escaped significant sanction.
The central hearings committee of the GAA warned him about his future conduct in media interviews but no meaningful action was taken.
This week, the opportunity for Cody to do the right thing presented itself. When asked about the controversy at a sponsor’s event to mark the start of the season, Cody could have publicly acknowledged it was an unfortunate word to use, and that he was withdrawing it.
He chose not to, and so the chance for Cody to remove a nasty and permanent stain from Kilkenny’s 2014 title win passed. Records of that All-Ireland should carry an asterisk, noting how the conduct of the winning manager diminished the victory. It also diminished the greatest managerial record in GAA history.
It is not right that we all charge excitedly into a new hurling season as if the game is dappled in sunlight and all is right with this world, as if what happens one season has no effect on another. A great wrong was done to a match official last October and this week Cody could have apologised publicly and settled an unfortunate incident. He didn’t. As far as the disciplinary process of the GAA is concerned, the matter ended last October, but it actually ended on Tuesday, and its graceless conclusion is worth recording. This was an important incident for two reasons. One, Cody is an influential man and his words carry more weight than most managers. And two, disrespect for match officials, while not the celebrity issue others have become, is as important as any of the critical tests confronting hurling and football.
On Cody’s influence, it is of course true he is not responsible for law and order. He is not the conscience of a sporting body; his allegiance is to his county. But he is an influential figure and proof of that influence was obvious this time last year, when he supported an absurd proposal by Eddie Keher to abolish cards.
THE Keher plan claimed that cards were ‘totally at variance with the ethos, physicality and manliness of the game of hurling’, and that ‘hurling was never a cynical game, but it is now starting to become one due to the unjust penalties imposed for fouls by players full of honest endeavour’.
This campaign gathered momentum thanks to the esteem in which its author was held but also because of the backing of Cody. He supported the argument made by his distinguished county-man, claiming ‘he made a lot of sense’.
It was the official reaction to Keher’s plan that illustrated Cody’s place in the game. Were anyone else to write to Croke Park proposing the abolition of cards, the letter would probably be in the bottom of a recycling bin before lunchtime.
However, once Cody lent his support there was a quick response from the president Liam O’Neill – the initiation of a committee to test the health of the sport.
‘Brian Cody weighing in makes it serious, so obviously there is an appetite for discussion, so let’s do it,’ said O’Neill.
Not many people can prompt the president of the GAA to launch an examination of the game that eventually became the Hurling 2020 Review. Cody could without even demanding it. His influence runs strong.
This is as it should be, too. Sports are living things, made and remade year after year and the most relevant evidence can come from those most closely involved. But if Cody’s views on the place of cards in discipline found a large audience, accounts of his verbal attack on Barry Kelly spread widely as well. And that is a disaster for the GAA, as it would be a sorry day for any sport when one of its outstanding figures uses such inappropriate language about a match official.
And this brings up the second reason why this entire incident was so important: referees. They are the unloved amateurs in an environment where giving your time because you love a sport is spoken of in wearily reverential tones.
Managers and players have their sacrifices recorded with a slavish, slobbering glee, but referees are given as much attention as goalposts.
It is just presumed they will be there on the day, and that they will do nothing to attract attention. Heaven forfend they should make a mistake or, as in Kelly’s case, call a tight decision in a direction that some might find disagreeable.
There are fashionable causes in Gaelic games. Burnout is one. The plight of club players is another.
A campaign on TV rights is guaranteed to draw a crowd. The plight of match officials is not one of these hot-button issues.
However, their status is as important as any of the current concerns. Without a functioning disciplinary apparatus a sport is finished, and despite the improve- ments in standards and stiffened sanctions for wrongdoers, respect for referees continues to fluctuate.
AND their case is not helped when the most decorated manager in the history of hurling or football calls a decision made by one of their number ‘criminal’. Barry Kelly will be placed in a wretchedly difficult decision if and when he is next in charge of a game involving Kilkenny, never mind the personal challenge of hearing a decision you make branded ‘criminal’ for the entire country to read about.
Kelly is not alone in suffering, though. Every referee in the GAA suffered when it was decided Cody should not face meaningful punishment for what he said about Kelly. It was a poor day for justice in the association.
Last Tuesday concluded this shoddy controversy. In choosing not to discuss the matter, Cody ended it – but in a way that did him little credit. He might have decided to explain why he used the word criminal, a word that even a moment’s reflection would have shown to be entirely inappropriate. He chose another route. It ended the affair, and in a manner so unsatisfactory it befitted the entire regrettable episode.
Records of last year’s All-Ireland should carry an asterisk, noting how the conduct of the winning manager diminished the victory