Cody's lone focus is on victory

SEVERAL weeks on, Brian Cody has not broken his silence on the departure of team captain Charlie Carter and Brian McEvoy. And, he has no intention of doing so.

Essentially, the message is that no two, three or four individuals are more important to Kilkenny hurling than the combined team effort. And, nothing will be allowed obstruct or frustrate the collective ambition to remain the most successful team in the present hurling world.

"I have said nothing and I'm still saying nothing. My absolute concentration is on the Leinster final and the players who are working very hard," he commented when quizzed on team spirit at training.

"Any night we are in, there's always good spirit, always a good work-rate. Nothing distracts us from what we are trying to do. It's about a number of fellows being in here. They all have their own personal ambitions, and as a group we have our collective ambitions to be as successful as we possibly can. And, we have a certain number of years where we can try to do it.

"You just can't afford to let anything come between you and those ambitions. If you do, you are no longer competitive and you're blown away."

The high profile absentees are not the only changes for the Cats. Andy Comerford isn't on the team either, as he is a victim of a series of niggly injuries. Richie Mullally is absent also, due to a broken ankle sustained in the county championship.

Cody though believes the strength of the squad is sufficient to cope with whatever eventuality arises, whatever the reason. And that includes Carter and McEvoy.

"I don't look at it that way," he said. "Absolutely, it doesn't even come into the situation at all. Any given night we can't have 30 players present because of injuries or whatever, but there are fellows out there queuing up for a phone call to come and make up numbers. I don't even like using that phrase, 'making up numbers,' but that is what lads do.

"There are players mad anxious to be part of the set-up. That is the way it has to be and that is the way we want it to be. Every young player wants to play for Kilkenny and we'll keep encouraging that to happen."

He is naturally sympathetic to the plight of Comerford, last year's All-Ireland captain, and of course Mullally, describing the former skipper's contribution as "immense".

"But, when I say he has been immense, that does not say our team is weaker as a result. Somebody else steps in and they bring their qualities to it. That's the only way it can be. No player is indispensable in any team."

His views on Mullally are much the same, agreeing that he is a huge loss but that it's 'more unfortunate' for the player at a personal level than for anybody else.

He dismisses suggestions that his team haven't faced a serious test since the league final, pointing to the meeting with Dublin to illustrate his point.

"We played Dublin a few times during the year and found them to be serious opposition. Their under-21s have come along since and beaten Wexford. They have the potential to be a good team.

"They had beaten us deservedly in the Walsh Cup final. We picked the strongest team we could for that game and we wanted to beat them. But, it was a different time of the year.

"Our performance against them in the championship was a decent one. Obviously we are going to step it up and step it up in a big way."

Wexford impressed him in their semi-final by their refusal to panic when Offaly opened up a seven points lead by half-time.

"They were put to the pin of their collar in the sense that a lot of questions were asked of them. But they turned it around well in the second half."

And again he was keen to emphasis the recent history between the sides, most notably their league meeting in Nowlan Park which ended level.

"We drew it in the sense that we were lucky to draw. It's very difficult to keep doing that. You are talking about them making a run at it and we hanging on and sneaking a win or whatever.

"I'd say they have a huge belief that they are good enough to beat us and that they will beat us. They showed that confidence against Offaly. They kept hurling and showed they believed in the way they were doing it. They are the toughest opposition we could have right now.

"Then again, it tends to be like that with Kilkenny and Wexford."