Old master Brian Cody still bringing fire and functionality in hurling’s brave new world
Given last Sunday night’s peculiar but surely forgivable digression by Derek McGrath and Dónal Óg Cusack had half the nation yearning for the return of the plain speaking of Ger Loughnane, it’s worth revisiting what the great Clare man had to say about the weekend’s two victors back in his final summers on our screens.
On the eve of the last season in which Kilkenny reached an All-Ireland final, Loughnane made the contentious remark that Brian Cody’s men were “functional beyond belief”. While at the time it drew the ire of many on Noreside, one resident from there, a certain Enda McEvoy also of this parish, observed at the time that it was the ultimate compliment of Brian Cody and his charges as well as a brilliant one-liner, worthy of capital-letters status.
