Just another day at the office
Even before the final whistle sounded, you were left wondering what had really motivated the champions.
What best explained the awesome power in their hurling and the intensity of their play, what was responsible for Cody ‘driving’ his team on from the sideline with such passion?
Just as he has steadfastly refused to comment on the controversy surrounding the departure of Charlie Carter and Brian McEvoy from the squad last year, Cody deflects questions about his recent brush with authority.
Brought before the GAC last week, he received a warning after his half- time approach to referee Diarmuid Kirwan to protest about some decisions.
One in particular infuriated him and at the time, he made his feelings known to the linesman. Crucially, however, he was not reported for verbal abuse and cognizance was taken of an exemplary record. Thus, he will be free to stalk the sideline as usual tomorrow at Croke Park.
Cody insists he was not hurt by media comment about the team or himself personally in the period between the defeat by Wexford in the Leinster semi-final and the game with Galway. And the suggestion that he would use newspaper cuttings to motivate his team amused him.
“I wouldn’t be hurt by anything except what happens on the field,” he said.
“The defeat by Wexford knocked us out of the Leinster championship but we felt we were capable of progressing further than that in the All-Ireland series. So we regrouped against Dublin and won that game well and then we prepared very well for the Galway match. We had prepared - as we thought - very well for the Wexford game too.
“The defeat to Wexford did spur us on to really give it all against Galway.”
In any case, the players - and himself - avoid reading newspapers coming up to a game, to avoid being distracted.
“There was a determination in the team to try and win the game. The prize was to get us to the quarter-final, or else we’d be gone out of the championship in early July. That’s what the players didn’t want to happen - and the same holds for Sunday’s game with Clare.”
Cody was dismissive of the notion that he was under pressure to justify changes made in defence for the Galway game, which saw James Ryall recalled to one corner and Tommy Walsh picked in the other.
“Everybody speaks about the manager being under pressure. But sport is sport at the end of the day, we’re on the go for the last few years and we’re trying to play as best as we possibly can play.
“There’s no way you will play at the top of your ability every day. But the only absolute thing is to try and win the game. Sometimes you’ll win playing very well, sometimes you’ll win just hanging in, struggling. Against Galway we played very well, but if we had won hanging in there, they’d be talking about pressures, the pressure was there to win, that we hung on and we survived.
“It has nothing to do with pressures, contrary to what everybody wants to believe. Galway were under pressure. There’s a pressure that automatically goes with the thing, but it’s not a pressure that you simply can’t live with.”
Cody says there’s no mystery about their selection of Tommy Walsh at corner-back, pointing out that he spent his youth playing in the backs with his club, Tullaroan.
“Tommy played his first game for us as a corner-back, then wing-back and we decided we were going to use him at midfield. I remember League matches last year when he played excellently at centre-field. And he won his All Star there. But Tommy is a very unusual player in the sense that he is very comfortable playing in just about every position on the field. It’s something very few people can do.”
Cody travelled to the Clare-Offaly qualifier with an open mind. What he witnessed was Clare exerting an early dominance and finishing strongly.
“You could liken them to Waterford, and we all remember how badly they played against Galway in the League final. No matter what you say about the championship being the Sunday after, the League title would have been looked on as a huge prize for Waterford. But on the day they just didn’t perform.
“The following Sunday they had something to prove and they performed out of their skins while Clare didn’t perform. That can happen to every team. They have turned it around magnificently. People can look at Offaly any way they like, but it is a fact that in the Leinster final - especially for the first 20 minutes - they had Wexford in trouble.
“And for Clare to turn around and really beat them in the end was a big achievement.”
Asked if he believed Kilkenny could repeat their Thurles performance, Cody answered with another question. “I wonder, is too much being made of it? We played well, and we had very good leaders on the night. But by their own admission, Galway realised that they weren’t prepared for the championship,” he said.
“They were very much in the game up to 10 or 15 minutes to go. It wasn’t a game where you’d be saying, ‘this is handy’. It wasn’t handy.”
Watching a tape of the game subsequently, he listened to (selector) Pierce Piggott saying at half-time that Galway weren’t used to playing at that pace or that kind of intensity because they didn’t have championship matches.
Since then, Conor Hayes has been saying that they should have played in the Leinster championship.
“They need championship matches to hone themselves for that particular type of game. The championship is a step up from the League and they were basing their game on League form. Since the final, they didn’t have the opportunity to play a game that would remotely resemble a championship match and I think they would have been in trouble against any of the top teams as a result.
“People will look at it any way they want to, but certainly I would be saying - and I would have to take on board what Conor Hayes is saying since the game - that they weren’t prepared and, look what taking part in the Leinster championship would have meant to them - an awful lot.”
