A lesson in Codd-ology

NOT all hurlers are choir-boys. Not all sing from the same hymn-sheet.

As this interview business becomes increasingly banal with more and more players faithfully trotting out the party line, never daring to stray from the laid-out track, thank God for the likes of Wexford captain Paul Codd. Free spirit, a thinking man, a concerned man.

One of his major concerns, even as he prepares for Sunday’s All-Ireland senior hurling semi-final clash with Cork, are the consequences of what’s being done in Wexford to facilitate those preparations.

“The way things are run in Wexford the clubs are being forgotten about. That needs to be addressed in the next couple of months, whether we win, lose or draw.

“We make the excuse here that we have the overlap with the football clubs, dual players and so on, but sure Cork are well advanced in their championships, and they have more, and better, dual players and dual clubs.

“Somebody has to answer for what’s happening in the Wexford club scene, because it’s not good. Maybe next year’s county panellists should put down the boot themselves and say they want to hurl the club championships, and that’s it.”

The flip side of the Wexford coin doesn’t faze Paul Codd either.

In Cork, where, as he says, the club championship has been progressing apace with the inter-county scene and team manager Donal O’Grady only got his full panel together for the first time on Tuesday evening.

That’s nearly six weeks after their last game, the Munster final, just five days before an All-Ireland semi-final.

“I don’t know what all this talk of training is about, it’s getting boring at this stage. That Cork team has come up together through the minor and U21 ranks, they’ll know each other well, and sure won’t they be a lot fresher?” Codd responds.

The point raised by Codd is very pertinent. Does it really serve the greater good of hurling, even if it does pay off at All-Ireland inter-county level, to deny genuinely competitive action to every player in the county except the elite for the whole summer?

Starving the root to feed the flower doesn’t seem the best way to tend a garden.

To the games then, and again Paul doesn’t pull his punches. A good championship opener for Wexford with a character-building ‘come-from-behind’ win in the Leinster semi-final against Offaly was shattered subsequently with a loss to Kilkenny in the final. “With nine minutes to go we were only three points down, but still we never looked like winning the match. We went up to Croke Park with confidence, we were so convinced we would be able to beat them that we were thinking where we were going to have the celebrations. In the end we forgot to hurl on the day.

“What harm, but Kilkenny weren’t at their best. I know they could have had three or four goals in the first half but for the performance of our defence and the goalie, but that was the day to catch them, when they’re missing those goals. We didn’t, but hopefully we’ll get another rattle at them.”

To do so, they will have to get over Cork this weekend. Before addressing that problem however, a gentle good-humoured gibe is produced, this time at the current structure of the All-Ireland championship.

“It’s so long since Cork played I’m nearly after forgetting how good they are! But we know they’re good. We know too that if we don’t hurl better than we’ve hurled in any game this year, we won’t have a hope of winning.

“We played them in the League and it was a close enough game that they won in the end, but you can’t take anything from that. We played Kilkenny in the league as well, not too long before the championship and there was nothing in it at the finish. Then we went out in the Leinster final and lost by eleven points. It’s hard to know what way it’s going to go.”

Much is being made in Cork of the fact that Wexford have played in Croke Park several times since the new stands were completed and the new pitch installed. The pitch especially is giving players problems, a new and very different-type surface.

Totally sand-based, faster, harder, slicker, very noticeable so far this year, in both hurling and football, is the number of players who are losing their footing. But the experience offers no real advantage reckons Codd.

“I don’t think it will make any difference. If the surface is slippy, being more used to it won’t stop you from falling, if you’re travelling at speed. And I don’t think the studs matter either. The last day most of the players wore long studs but I stayed with the multi stud and didn’t slip any worse than anyone else. It’s just the way the surface is, and it is the same problem for all of us.”

No-one should go away with the impression that the Wexford captain is all moan and groan.

A committed club-man, his concern at what’s happening, not just in Wexford but in counties nationwide, is genuine. It’s a problem he feels should be addressed before it later becomes too late. But there is a more immediate problem facing Wexford and here, Paul Codd is much more positive.

“Cork are a good side, they won the U21 in ‘97 when they gave us a lesson in hurling, won the All-Ireland senior in ‘99. They’re back again, fresh, hungry, we’ll have it all to do. But sure if we didn’t think we were able we wouldn’t be going down to training in Wexford Park three or four nights a week.

“We have a lot of gifted young lads, Rory Jacob is playing very well for a fella in his first year, and sure if the Hopper (Chris McGrath) gets a scent of a goal at all, he’ll get it. We’re happy enough.”