Cats’ win borne of character
The memories of four years ago haunt him, and the lingering doubt associated with that loss threatened his side's claim to greatness. Until yesterday that is.
"1999 is a short time ago. But, it happened and it did live in our memories and there's no point in saying that it didn't. It lived in mine, the same as 2001 [the defeat by Galway in the semi-final].
"The one thing I felt all along and we spoke about it to the players was that if we had lost, the skill of the team would never be questioned. The media wouldn't be saying that this Kilkenny team were poor hurlers.
"What would have been questioned would have been their toughness their hardness and their mental toughness along with their spirit and their ability to grind and to battle, to just go the extra step that teams for the last ten years couldn't go, and retain their title.
"That would have been an awful blot on the kind of players they are, because they have all those things in abundance. The media were saying that nobody was going to do two-in-a-row again. We all read it several times, that in the modern era it wasn't going to happen because of the demands on players. But, we have done it and we take pride in that and the fact that we brought two Leagues at the same time again. That was done 20 years ago by ourselves. It's fair going."
Cody, who shared in the last double/double in 1982/'83 as a player (and captain the second year), along with Noel Skehan, said that any such title is hard earned, and yesterday illustrated his point.
"I said it in '99. We could have won that game, but in sport, you either do or you don't. There was talk before this year's final that we 'deserved' to get two-in-a-row, but I kept pounding that we didn't deserve it. You don't deserve anything in sport. You have to go out and earn it.
"Cork may feel they threw it away or ye [the media] may feel they did, but we won the game. As far as I'm concerned the best team always wins. Games are won over 70 minutes with hooks, with blocks, with heart. Cork had chances of scores, but so had we. If Tommy Walsh had got that goal in the first half it would have been very difficult for Cork to come back."
Cody admitted to an anxious second half when Cork mounted a storming comeback and indeed held the lead for a few minutes.
"There were shades of '99 when we were four points up. That day Cork didn't get the goal to bridge the gap. This time they did.
"There was pressure there on the line, but I always knew they weren't going to die, never ever. It was the one thing I was certain about.
"People were talking about classics and wonderful scores, but we were trying to do something savagely difficult and when you're up there for a while it's very hard to keep doing that."
Cody also paid tribute to Henry Shefflin for providing great leadership, particularly at the stage when the champions were attempting to kill off the Cork challenge. And, he was generous in his praise of the influence of DJ Carey on the team.
"Ten years ago Kilkenny completed the double and DJ Carey was then a superstar, a young hurler who was idolised by everybody, everywhere. Lots of the players playing yesterday for us were eight, nine, ten, eleven years of age at the time, watching this guy and they loved him. After coming into the team, they found out that not just is he definitely a superstar, but that he is the most accommodating and most encouraging superstar that they are ever likely to meet.
"The great thing about DJ is that while he didn't get the rave reviews he got last year, he is the quintessential team player. He's never ever interested in being the man of the match. He doesn't care about scoring himself, but he can't help scoring most of the time. We're going to miss him when he gives up in a few years."
Cody also had some harsh words for those involved in publicising Carey's marriage break-up describing it as 'a bad advertisement' for the journalistic profession.
"To impinge on any person's private life is something that is not just on. But, DJ never missed a minute of training. His focus was total."
Once more, the Kilkenny boss declined to make any public comment on Charlie Carter's decision to opt out of the panel before the Leinster final.
"My job is to manage the Kilkenny team and there are things that will crop up and where decisions have to be taken.
"I wouldn't claim that everything I did was correct for everybody else, but my abiding thing is that I will do whatever I think is the best.
"We had players out there who were hugely committed to the cause of Kilkenny hurling and they gave it all."
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