Enda McEvoy: The next milestone on the latest Cody renovation job? 

STILL THE SAME: Kilkenny manager Brian Cody still hymns the old-fashioned merits he’s always hymned, all that stuff about hard work and spirit and perseverance. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

It's Croke Park in July so it must be the Leinster final and it must be Brian Cody. Hurling’s longest running residency.

At this stage it’s easier to count the ones he’s missed (2004, ’13 and ’17) than the ones he’s been there for (all the others plus an underground gig in Semple Stadium in 2018). One of these years Kilkenny will contest a provincial decider with someone else wearing the Bainisteoir’s shirt. Somehow it won’t feel right.