Cody has Kilkenny primed

DON’T expect Brian Cody to say what most neutrals feel about Kilkenny, and the favouritism of his side ahead of the Guinness All-Ireland SHC final.

No manager will ever reveal his inner-most thoughts, least of all to the national media, and Cody is always very measured in what he says.

Then again, he's speaking from wide experience of big games as a player and more recently as a manager. And, a considerable amount of that experience was gained from games against Cork.

He was on losing and winning teams against them at minor and senior level, enjoyed success when he played U-21 and, of course, was in his first year in charge of the seniors when they lost to the Rebels in the 1999 All-Ireland final.

Now having won a record sixth consecutive Leinster title, his side are in a position to become the first team in ten years to successfully defend the Liam McCarthy Cup.

Cynics might dismiss his view that Sunday's game is 'absolutely and totally' a fifty/fifty game, but, most of the people who expect Kilkenny to triumph would have expressed a similar view in advance of the final four years ago. Cody's argument is that it would be a folly for him or anybody in his position to be dismissive of Cork. Bitter experience has taught him that nothing is certain at this level of competition.

Kilkenny people who know their hurling would argue that supporters in general were over-confident in advance of the 1999 final and, at the time I reported former captain Liam Fennelly as saying so a week before.

Cody says that it was something the management had been aware of and 'certainly worried about.'

"But, there's only so much you can do at the end of the day to cushion the players from supporters. You just can't isolate them totally because when they go to work they're hearing things.

"It's something you have to cope with and put up with. If that's out there again this year and it affects us, then we're very silly. We should have learned that favouritism goes out the window totally."

After Kilkenny recovered from the upset of losing that final to come back and win the next year (against Offaly), Cody suffered another disappointment in the semi-final of 2001 as Galway crushed them with ease, a defeat which left him questioning his role.

"First of all, I asked myself if I was going to continue. And, if I was, it was going to be absolutely do-or-die," he said at the time.

"In the aftermath of the 2000 final I would say that, subconsciously, I allowed all of our standards to drop a little. And I took that as my responsibility to make sure those standards were raised again," he commented.

"As I saw it, we were at the crossroads with Kilkenny hurling and with this Kilkenny team and there were only two ways we could go up or down!" Preparations for last year's successful campaign were little different.

"Hurling is not a massively tactical game, in the way that the ball moves so quickly compared to Gaelic football. You are just trying to get the best out of players all the time," he elaborates.

"Everybody keeps talking about 2001. At the end of the day we got beaten; we just didn't play well. In hindsight we weren't as prepared. The whole thing is a learning experience. I learned things last year and every other year. We just keep at it."

One obvious reason why Kilkenny are prospering is because the management have successfully managed to introduce new players each year. A complaint that Cody is welcome to suffer.

"The first fifteen over the last few games realise that others are trying very hard to take their place. Subs realise they are on the bench because there are very good players out there on the field. "I would have confidence in just about every player on the panel to come in and do a job. You have to be prepared. You don't know what's going to strike be it sickness or injury, or whatever. If you have all your eggs in the one basket and you're totally dependant on a couple of players, then you're going to be in trouble. So, it's very much a 30-man thing."

Despite all the praise that his team received for their second-half display against Tipperary in the semi-final, Cody considered it as little more than 'very encouraging'.

So to Sunday. Quite apart from the incentive to reverse the result of the 99 final, he agrees that games with Cork games have a special attraction.

"I have been involved against Cork on big days since I was a young fellow and I enjoyed them terrifically. You grew up with the realisation of the great rivalry. It's a respected rivalry, that's still there. Kilkenny do love playing Cork and Cork do love playing Kilkenny.

"They present the same threat that Cork teams have always had. They have the skills as they always have, this innate ability. They believe they have the ability I won't say divine right to be reaching Croke Park on big match days. They feel they are back where they belong. It's going to be very hard to prevent them taking the spoils."