‘Treble bid won’t distract us’
"That element is there and there's no point in thinking it's not. If we can win the All-Ireland final it will be a major achievement, but that's not going to inhibit us or cut across us in any way,'' he said yesterday.
"Whatever is made about it in the media is fine.''
More immediately, the Kilkenny manager declined to speculate on the possibility of their challenge being undermined by the poor finishing which left his team quite vulnerable in the concluding stages of Sunday's quarter-final against Waterford.
When it was put to him that there would need to be an improvement if they were to be sure of winning, he responded: "We're not going to be sure of winning anything for starters. You just can't be sure. The only thing we can be sure of is we are in the All- Ireland final and when Wexford beat us we were light years away from it.
"It's a big achievement when you think of the situation we were in.''
Cody stressed he was 'very happy' with his team, saying they displayed all the qualities he looked for good spirit, commitment and determination in abundance in the last few matches.
"I'm absolutely certain about the quality of our team and the skill levels. I would have no problem whatsoever with that aspect. I'm happy if we are creating chances. Okay, we had a few wides on Sunday but some of them were very close to being scores. We'll prepare for the final the same as we have always prepared for big matches. And we'll be doing our utmost to have everything right.''
Agreeing that his backs had been outstanding in the second-half in particular he denied it had been a priority to limit Dan Shanahan, who had scored 6-4 in the three Munster games, but was held scoreless this time.
"We don't target individuals, each player has his own job to do and as it turned out, JJ Delaney played his own position at left half-back. He wasn't designated to pick up Dan Shanahan. They found themselves marking each other, and the way players drift from position to position, the lads took it on themselves to go with them.
"He wasn't earmarked for special attention. It was a bonus that we were able to keep him reasonably quiet.
"Everyone saw Waterford play this year in the Munster championship and they had been playing excellently.
"They didn't score any goal on Sunday and that's a huge thing in hurling. We scored three goals and that was a nine-point difference straight away and very hard to make up. They were quality goals. We had a clean sheet at the other end and that was massive.
"You can analyse it forever, but those two things had a big bearing on the game.''
In relation to the huge influence which Henry Shefflin had on the outcome, Cody stated that he just couldn't say if they would have won without him.
There had been similar speculation about DJ Carey when he came back after injury against Tipperary in the All-Ireland semi-final two years ago and starred.
"Some people said we wouldn't have won without him, but I have no idea if we would or wouldn't. And I have no idea if we would have won without Henry. What I do know, no matter what player we would have to pick from our panel, I would have been happy with him. Henry would be the first person to say, this wasn't about him. It was about the team.
"Young Cha Fitzpatrick came in there for the last few games. He's only 19 but he had an excellent game. John Hoyne is the sort of player nobody says too much about but he went in at centre-forward where people expected Henry to be and had a huge game.
"People were saying that Martin Comerford hadn't been playing well, but he had a huge game.''
He acknowledged John Mullane had been a huge loss to Waterford, saying he had too much respect for him as a player to suggest otherwise. Yet, he wasn't prepared to say that they could have won with him.
"Again, it's a team game. You can never say if such a thing had happened, that something else might have happened,'' he commented.
Repeating his preference for regular competition, he said he had no problem with having to play three weekends in a row. Intriguingly, he admitted he 'genuinely' wouldn't have a problem with playing next week either.
"The players are very fit. It was said that we were tired, but I didn't see much sign of tiredness in our back line especially and they were the ones the questions were being asked of.
"Everyone talks about tactics and there was a belief that this would be a straightforward game, But Waterford brought players back in the second- half, not that I have a problem with that. They had seven or eight players at the back, operating with fewer forwards no different to what Clare had done. We got to the stage where Tommy Walsh was a 'loose' back.
"I just hope that's not turned on its head by saying that we operated with an extra back.''
After experience of both systems, Cody insists that they had no problem with the six-week gap. Ideally, he'd 'settle' for a game every two weeks.
"Sport is always about how you perform on the day. You can never cover every eventuality, you can never be sure. It's a mental thing, I suppose.
"I don't think any team would opt for being without a game for six weeks. There's no point in saying you would.''
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