Kilkenny have sights set on clinching third consecutive All-Ireland title

THE bid for a third successive All-Ireland SHC title will be the central motivating factor for Kilkenny this season, according to manager Brian Cody.

Cody’s side who have won back-to-back League and championship crowns in the past two seasons are aiming to become the first team since Cork in the late seventies to complete a treble in the All-Ireland series.

“Talk of the three-in-a-row is not something we will be getting caught up in obviously. But at the same time it would be ridiculous to say that it’s not a huge incentive. It is,” said Cody, in Las Vegas, where the 2002 and 2003 Vodafone GAA Allstars spent the last two nights of their American tour.

“Even though we won’t be talking about it ourselves, I know every player will have it at the back of his mind, that if we could be successful this year we would be doing something serious alright!

“But, it’s light years away now and I’m not thinking of the championship. I’m thinking of the League.”

On Sunday, Kilkenny are scheduled to play Dublin in the Walsh Cup while 24 hours previously they meet county and Leinster champions O’Loughlin Gaels in a challenge. Then it’s back to the grindstone.

“It’s a small bit later than normal, but a lot of the lads were doing a bit themselves. So, so I’m not concerned about the timing.”

The selectors did consider an earlier start but felt it would make sense to wait until their All Star representatives (ten in all) returned from the US. Other than Peter Barry, who continued onto South America for a further holiday, none of these players will be used in either of the weekend games.

“We could have got the lads who were in Australia training while we were out here but we decided not to. The most important thing is that everybody recovers. There’s no point in training if they are jet-lagged and tired. We want them fresh and ready to train. We have had a long break and the one thing the lads kept asking was, ‘when are we going back?’

“Even though we have had a couple of good years, essentially it’s the next year that fellows keep thinking about. I’m not worried about burn-out or anything like that. We’ll approach the year the same as other years.”

Cody didn’t commit to making any predictions about possible changes to the panel, other than saying that they will be trying out new players in the two games this weekend.