Cody enjoying it as much as ever

One thing we have come to expect from Brian Cody over the last twenty years as Kilkenny senior hurling manager is never to expect the unexpected.
So to hear the legendary manager reference Love Island during the course of his media duties was certainly one of those unexpected moments from the usually stoic Cody who was as engaging as he has ever been with the media.
In his 21st year as Kilkenny manager and preparing for his sixteenth All Ireland Final of which he has won eleven of them, the 65-year-old is getting as much enjoyment out of it as ever.
“I enjoy being it (manager), that's the reality,” he said.
“I could dress it up and come up with all sorts of fanciful things about it but there are none. I've been involved with hurling, from playing, coaching young lads to all sorts of lads all my life. Why? Because I enjoy it and I enjoy it as much now as I did before.
“I don't have to get up and do this every single year or I don't have to do it at all. If I didn't feel like doing it I wouldn't do it. There is no mystery to it to be honest about it.”
Failing to reach the last two All Ireland Final was the longest stretch Kilkenny have had without reaching the decider with Brian Cody at the helm. At the start of the year, not many would have tipped Kilkenny to be there with Cody admitting himself that was fair but he was always happy with the direction which his relatively new squad were taking.
“The ambition at the start of the year was to be in the All-Ireland final,” he continued.
“When people speculated on who might be there, we weren’t one of the teams. That was fair enough, but we knew we had to continue to build away, to build a team, to keep things going.
“We didn’t have a very successful League campaign. All the time we were working towards the championship. The players were working hard and honestly. I said at the start of the year, I would always say it, that I would have confidence in the players. I really believed there was serious talent, serious honesty there. We just kept things going, and here we are.”

 

To read more, pick up a copy of this weeks Nenagh Guardian locally or subscribe to our e-paper to access it online each Wednesday.