The afternoon it all began for Brian Cody
It was a debutants’ ball of a day, an occasion on which a host of the biggest names of the next decade stepped forward into a new version of themselves.
There was a first start in the national adult arena for a big redhaired lump of a lad from Ballyhale. There was the curious sight of the Cork goal no longer manned by the familiar frame of Ger Cunningham but rather by a youngster from Cloyne who’d featured in a few league matches over the previous two seasons.
There was an impressive cameo from Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, introduced at centre-back at the interval — Brian Corcoran had been hit in the eye by the sliotar — and praised by the man from the Kilkenny People (“he looked powerful early on”).
Along with all of this, and above all of this, it was the start of the second phase of the new Kilkenny manager’s hurling life.
Henry and Dónal Óg and Seán Óg went on to do what they went on to do, and by their words and deeds we came to know all about them.
Brian Cody continues to do what he began to do on the opening day of the Church and General National Hurling League 20 years ago. We know all about him too.
Páirc Uí Rinn, February 21, 1999. Cork 0-14 Kilkenny 1-9.
Barely a wet week in the job, the visiting manager was necessarily trying to sort the wheat from the chaff. It would take him a full year to do so. On the journey south Ned Quinn, himself newly installed as Kilkenny GAA chairman, mused that a good performance would be as important as a victory. Cody wasn’t having any of it.
“Feck the good performance, we’re going down here to win.”
How very Codyesque.
For his part, Jimmy Barry-Murphy was in his fourth season with Cork and had arrived at a decision. He was going with youth. He started eight players who’d won All-Ireland U21 medals the previous September, Dónal Óg Cusack included, and brought on two more in Ó hAilpín and Neil Ronan.
Cork won the toss and in front of a crowd of around 5,000 opted to face the gale. At the interval, with the sides level at 0-6 apiece, it looked a smart move. But Kilkenny dug in well and eight minutes from the end drew level when Shefflin, who’d made his inter-county debut against Wexford in the Walsh Cup shortly beforehand, took a pass from Ken O’Shea and found the net from ten metres. The hosts found a second wind, however, and late points by Timmy McCarthy, Ronan with his first touch, and Fergal McCormack deservedly saw them home.
The hero of the hour was Seanie McGrath, their leading scorer with four points. Ahem: A top of the ground hurler like him floating over the turf in February?
“The previous two years I’d been playing Fitzgibbon Cup with UCC in January and February, so that helped me get used to National League conditions,” McGrath says. “And the vibes around the county, after winning two All Ireland U21 titles in a row, were good. The feeling was that something was coming. Also, winning the league in 1998 had been a boost. Jimmy had emphasised how important it was. Every game that year was a springboard. Cork hadn’t won an All-Ireland since 1990. That 1998 league victory put us in a good place starting out in 1999. I put an awful lot of what happened in ’99 down to ’98.”
One small but portentous takeaway from the 1999 league opener: Kilkenny had three scorers; Cork had .
And check out this line from Diarmuid O’Flynn in the Examiner next day: “Outstanding Cork full-back (and get used to that phrase) Diarmuid O’Sullivan said…”
Facing the microphones for the first time afterwards Cody, a man about whom next to nothing was known in a managerial sense and would not be for another couple of years, played a predictably straight bat.
“I was happy enough. We kept it competitive enough up to the end, could possibly have taken it, so we have to be reasonably pleased. The first thing we’d be looking for is the commitment and we’d be happy with that. We’ve more or less no hurling done at all yet. In fact we haven’t even a lot of physical work done.
Obviously we’re disappointed to lose the game, we want to win everything we can, but we’re happy enough with the overall display.
Better to come? “We hope so.”
The teams’ paths diverged thereafter, to come together again at Croke Park seven months later. Buoyed by their performance on Leeside, Kilkenny reeled off victories against Laois, Tipperary, Down, and Wexford before succumbing to a late Galway goal in the semi-final at the Gaelic Grounds. Nobody minded, not least Cody. His charges had gone as far as they wanted or needed to. With Shefflin there and on the frees and with John Power back in harness they now had two players to share — nay, carry — DJ Carey’s burden. The Kilkenny of 1999 would be a different animal to the cautious Kilkenny of 1998.
For their part Cork went on to beat Wexford and Down but lost to Tipperary and Laois. The latter result wasn’t as big a shock as it may sound today.
Laois were competitive at the time, the match took place amid the confines of Rathdowney, it was a cold March afternoon and McGrath, delighted with himself after his Kilkenny performance, barely got a puck. They took him off before the end. He wasn’t complaining. A league game against Laois in Rathdowney was no setting for the chap from the Glen to shine.
JBM proceeded to cause a small sensation by naming a raft of championship debutants for the Munster semi-final against Waterford. To anyone who’d been present on the opening day of the league, it was no sensation at all.
Although naturally nobody realised it at the time, Cork and Kilkenny had just offered a sneak preview of the All-Ireland final.
From this remove, indeed, the similarities between Páirc Uí Rinn on February 21 and Croke Park on September 12 are so striking as to be almost uncanny.
Again it was tight and lowscoring and this time it was profoundly unlovely, a showpiece ruined by rain. Again it was a day for backs rather than for forwards. Again Cork failed to raise a green flag. Again Kilkenny were outpointed. Again Cork had the greater spread of scorers, albeit only barely (seven to six).
Again the sides were level at the furlong pole, after which the men in red won by the puck of a ball.
Cork 0-13 Kilkenny 0-12.
For once the opening day of the season contained all the secrets of what transpired on the closing day.
Three of the winners’ points at Croke Park came from our friend from Glen Rovers, two of them at the height of the battle. It underlined an ancient hurling verity. Rain suits the most skilful players. The integrity of their first touch overrides the conditions. For Cork it was 1966 all over again, a third of a century on. As for Cody, before he started winning championships he would have to lose one in the most agonising of circumstances.
Twenty years later the counties meet once more on the opening day of the league next Sunday, this time at Nowlan Park. McGrath and the other dramatis personae of 1999 having long since departed the scene, only one of the cast members from Páirc Uí Rinn remains.
Still wanting to win everything he can.
