IN ALL FAIRNESS - Cody brought the best out of Tipp

The say the best time to announce bad news is when people’s attention is drawn to something else. I doubt if Brian Cody designed the Saturday of the All-Ireland Football final to confirm that he was stepping down as Kilkenny manager, but it is a little funny that he chose that time to eclipse some of the limelight from the biggest football game of the year.

Whenever the news was going to come and the feeling was last week that the end was nigh, it was still hugely surprising that the one man that has defined hurling for a generation won’t be on the side-line come championship 2023.

There’ll be much relief from all major hurling counties, but also sadness, as there was in Kerry when Mick O’Dwyer called it a day or more recently Sean Boylan in Meath. The only difference between Cody and those two men is he is leaving when his team is still All-Ireland contenders. That says it all about Brian Cody and there is no doubt that he will go down as the greatest ever GAA manager.

24 years as manager is a lifetime to give to what is an amateur sport but hurling is a drug for Cody, so for him to choose now, even at the age of 68, to step away cannot be an easy decision for him, not just for the fact Kilkenny came close to winning this year’s All-Ireland title, but what does he do now when the winter comes, and he doesn’t have to make the short drive to their training centre a couple of times a week.

When a giant of management steps away, it is hard not to think of those who went before, including other sports such as Sir Matt Busby and Bill Shankly, both who found it difficult when they chose to step away from Manchester United and Liverpool respectively. Sir Alex Ferguson is probably the most recent example but was at seventy when he chose to step away and had other pastimes such as golf and horse racing. There doesn’t seem to be anything that consumes Brian Cody other than hurling and while I doubt we will see him manage another inter-county team, I’d say his beloved James Stephens will be seeing a lot of him in the years ahead, and don’t be surprised if he is the man who breaks the Ballyhale Shamrock’s dynasty in Kilkenny.

In a Tipperary context, anything we have achieved over the last twenty years is caveated by Brian Cody, and while there was a time we cursed his very existence, as the years have gone on there is an undoubted respect for the way he prepared his teams, and it was they who set the bar that Tipperary rose to and helped generate the greatest period in the stories hurling rivalry between the counties.

Between league and championship from 2008 to 2019, there were rarely any matches between the sides that weren’t enthralling, even if Kilkenny came out the right side of the majority of them. Even before that, in 2002, Cody’s Kilkenny ended the Nicky English era in a classic All-Ireland semi-final, as it kick-started Cody’s first golden team as they won three All-Ireland’s in four years. Then came his second team that won the four in a row from 2006 to 2009 with a skilful and physical style of hurling that no team could match. People look at Limerick now and see players covering a lot of ground, but Kilkenny were doing this fifteen years ago when the likes of Eoin Larkin and Martin Comerford were half forwards playing retreating into midfield and the half back line.

At the end of 2008 and the demolition of Waterford in the All-Ireland final, Kilkenny had a psychological hold over every county. There were beaten before they took to the field. They were relentless, even in league games where they knew not to give opponents any reason for hope. That is why Tipperary’s resurgence in 2009 was so impressive, considering the five-goal battering they took in the first half of a league game in Nowlan Park, yet a few weeks later they took Kilkenny to extra time in the league final, the first game that defined that modern rivalry between the sides, and gave Tipp the belief that ultimately led to the All-Ireland success in 2010.

As impressive as the Kilkenny four-in-a-row team was, I would argue the team that won four titles in five years (2011, 12, 14 & 15) was arguably Cody’s greatest successes as those star names were not at their peak any more, but he still got them to play to a championship winning level.

We are all wondering what will happen to Kilkenny now without Brian Cody, but for the moment it is about thanking a man that helped bring hurling to new levels from where every other major county has followed, and we now have the elite level game we now have. Enjoy your retirement, Brian!