‘We were at the crossroads’

DON’T rubbish the Allianz National League title, because it had “a major bearing” on Kilkenny’s 27th All-Ireland hurling success this year, manager Brian Cody said yesterday.

Cody underlined its importance in the context of restoring morale after the shattering defeat by Galway in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final and, more pertinently, in re-building the team. Kilkenny hurling had reached a crossroads and at a personal level Cody himself had arrived at a critical stage in his managerial career.

Relaxing in the Burlington Hotel yesterday ahead of the team’s journey home, Cody revealed that he had felt positive all along that his team would be very hard to beat: “But this wasn’t something that we turned up for and happened for us overnight. It all started off in the league.’’

Losing in the championship to Galway last year the way they did hurt Cody and the players and he gave a lot of thought to it in the weeks following: “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. 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.

“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.’’ In training he was harder on players, demanding more of them as much as they demanded of themselves. After they had got together to discuss their future, he was convinced that there was a huge hunger in the team to redeem their reputation.

“This was a team that was either going to be remembered for playing in three or four All-Irelands and winning the one or winning two finals. There’s a very thin line between being remembered as a very decent team or a team that under-achieved in a major way.

“There was a great drive from everybody within the whole county, within the panel as well as the county board, and the league was a hugely important part of it. That was the stepping stone. I always wanted to win the league, to be honest about it. Reporters were constantly making statements about the Kilkenny 'B’ team winning the League, but I kept emphasising that there was no ‘B’ team, that the team people were seeing was our best team then.’’

One newcomer was midfielder Pat Tennyson, who established himself through the league but fractured a bone in his ankle in the final against Cork. That coincided with the return of the team captain. “Andy was flying, which was a huge thing for us. He had a natural ability to take over, to be a driving force and to speak to the players in the dressing room.”

Cody said that the league campaign bolstered his options: “The championship hadn’t even started but there we were with players who hadn’t been heard of. I knew we were surrounding ourselves with serious players, serious hurlers and, as it unfolded, I had a great feeling of trust and confidence in the players’ ability to be savagely competitive. That was the be-all and the end-all of my year really.’’

The return of DJ Carey represented the icing on the cake, he said: “You can never quantify what a player like him means to any team. We had had a six-week break before the Tipperary match and people were asking how would we bridge the gap, would we survive where other teams were caught out. DJ Carey was coming back after a 52-week gap and you’d wonder, how could any player do that.

“He played as well in his two games as well as he ever played - and you cannot even begin to define how well he has played at different stages of his career. It was a massive boost to the team.”

But he emphasised the team effort: “We have forwards like Henry Shefflin and DJ Carey and they will always get credit. But, we have a backline that is very, very hard to beat. As a unit they are powerful. Our training sessions helped the players to sharpen. Take Mick Kavanagh playing on D.J. Carey for four and five nights in two weeks training before the final, or the Tipperary match, both of them put to the pin of their collar to cope with each other. They were not going to meet anything more difficult on the day of a match. That was the strength we had in our whole panel, where sessions were championship-like because the fervour and intensity were savage.”

While he was concerned at the way Clare came back at them early in the second half on Sunday, Cody remained ‘pretty confident’ that they were going to weather the storm: “We needed to get a score and our players were always going to get one. The hallmark of the great player is that when your back is to the wall, he will step in and Henry Shefflin did that, just as he had done against Tipperary when our backs were to the wall again.

“At the time there was a small bit of panic around the place, as we were wondering what to do, but I was looking at Andy Comerford and Derek Lyng in the middle of the field and I knew in my heart and soul that those fellows were going to weather the storm.

Saying he wouldn’t have made any plans in advance of bringing in players at the finish, he was delighted to give John Power his call-up at the end: “John has been a fantastic servant to Kilkenny hurling and you could see that by the way the crowd reacted when he came on.’’