Cracking Cody’s code

HERE’S A prediction, and you can chisel it in stone: Some day, right being right, the good citizens of Kilkenny will erect a monument to Brian Cody.

A big monument it will be too, befitting such a big character, and befitting also – given hurling’s place in the hearts of the people of this city and county – it will be placed right in the heart of the city itself, somewhere along the route followed now on seven occasions in the past decade by the parade of Cody’s latest All-Ireland winning team.

That, however, is for the future; in the present, the reign of Cody and his all-conquering Cats continues and tomorrow in Croke Park they take on Cork in the All-Ireland senior hurling semi-final, an historic five-in-a-row firmly in the crosshairs.

And the present is all that concerns Cody; not for him any reflection on the glories of the past, and most certainly not for him any contemplation of what the future may hold.

You must know your history, goes common wisdom, and learn from its mistakes, and you must always have an eye to the future. Well, many times in his 12-year tenure as Kilkenny manager Cody has made mistakes, and he has learned from those; many times during that tenure also, he has blooded new players, freshening the team year after year, always with that one eye on the future.

But, the present, that’s where Cody lives, and that is exactly why he and his team are now on the brink of history. “We’ve had a great run, obviously,” is all he’ll concede, “But sport being sport, the next day is all that matters. Personally I don’t think about last year, the year before – it’s great, but it’s gone. It’s tonight, it’s next Sunday, the next match, that’s what it’s all about, the eternal circle – training, match, training, match, on and on and on.”

When you sit down to talk to Cody about how he has brought Kilkenny to the pinnacle of hurling, to a position where they have dominated the inter-county scene now for four years and counting, don’t look for any ground-breaking revelations, don’t look for training or tactical innovations, don’t look for the secrets of success – there aren’t any.

What Kilkenny do, what Cody does as their manager, is an open book; their training sessions are open to the public, are held in Nowlan Park with the stiles open, anyone welcome to walk in and bear witness.

And yet, half an hour in his company, or a read through his autobiography (Cody, published last year with Martin Breheny, and a must-read for anyone interested in learning about this team), and you do get an insight into why Kilkenny have won what they’ve won.

WHEN he took over the hot-seat after Kilkenny’s loss to Offaly in the 1998 All-Ireland final, there was never any grand design, no great long-term plan for world dominance hurling – in fact there was no plan, really, no looking to any future.

“When I came in I wasn’t thinking ahead at all; I had no idea how long it was going to last, or what was going to happen. It was always just a year-to-year thing, and still is. I wasn’t in for two years or three years or ten years, and if I hadn’t been successful... We got to the All-Ireland final the first year, but if I went two or three years – even one year – and things not looking good, I wouldn’t be entitled to stay in it.

“I knew I was going in to do everything I possibly could, and to do it as well as I possibly could. There wasn’t huge optimism in the county at the time but I knew there was the makings of a decent team there, I knew the players were in the county, I had great confidence in that. I was just thinking about getting in there and instilling real spirit into the team; that was my obsession from day one, that’s still my obsession really, to make sure that stays intact. I just started working, carried on, and we’re still here now.”

Simple really; then, as now, and as a man who goes to games at every level from underage to senior, Cody had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the playing talent in Kilkenny. His object was to bring those players in to Nowlan Park and work with them, drill into them not just the fundamentals of hurling but more significantly, the kind of spirit and ego-less team ethic that he himself possesses. No blackboard, no whiteboard, no hurling revolution; just master the fundamentals of this game, get fit enough and strong enough, then go out and play as a team, utter commitment, total courage, every individual supporting those around him.

“Team spirit, that’s the hallmark, that’s the starting point, and I have great belief in that. If you have good players playing with teamwork, playing with togetherness, they will be the best they can be, but if you’re lacking in that team spirit, if you’re lacking that real team drive, it won’t happen, you won’t reach your full potential.

“That’s something I insist on, team spirit. But I don’t think I have that much influence on individual players; we get those players at the end of a long chain of events. They start with their own families more than anything else, they go through their clubs, their schools, and they come to you already well formed. You try to build them into a team, generate a spirit, a real team energy, then let them out and play.

“The hurling season comes and goes; for those teams lucky enough to reach the final it ends in September, starts again in January the following year, and it’s a new challenge every year. The players play the game, they love the game, and every year they look forward to starting all over again. Last year is a thing of the past, and you can’t live in the past, you can’t afford to be sated by whatever happened in the past. You can’t rest on your laurels, you have to give it full commitment every time you go out, and that’s very important; if you don’t give that total commitment, you have no right to be there.”

If there is any one element that is key to this Kilkenny team, however, it’s their defence. True, they have high-powered forwards, always had, but ask any forward from any other county about the difference in playing against Kilkenny, and they’ll tell you – trying to get off a shot. In Kilkenny, and under Cody now especially, defence is an art, a practised art.

“I don’t know if that was always recognised. In match highlights the focus is on the scores, and that’s understandable – scores excite people, scores win matches. But defending is also a superb skill, and a much more difficult skill in lots of ways. People will say that anyone can play in the backs, and maybe they can, and definitely you can’t say that anyone can play in the forwards, that’s for sure. But top-class defending is a great skill.”

Think of Tommy Walsh, JJ Delaney, Michael Kavanagh, Jackie Tyrell, Noel Hickey, John Dalton, John Tennyson, Brian Hogan, defenders all but consummate hurlers also, and you know what he means.

“Exactly; terrific skill, wonderful timing, wonderful instinct for defence, and it’s important to have that instinct. It’s just natural hurling, but then again it’s not peculiar to Kilkenny – you look at Cork, the great defenders they’ve had over the years, you look at the various other hurling counties, the greats they’ve had.”

Mention of Cork, we’d better ask the obvious – is he afraid there’s a kick left in this team? “Kick?” he snorts, “There’s a lot more than that in them. 99 was my first year, Cork and Kilkenny, and Cork won that. Since that we’ve crossed swords with them on several occasions – we beat them in the final in 2003, they came back and beat us in 04.

“The last time we met was in the semi-final a couple of years ago and that was a massive game. I saw them against Tipperary in the first round in Munster and they were very impressive that day, huge intensity – I’m expecting them to be better again this Sunday, even greater intensity. This is going to be a massive challenge.”

Not the general consensus of course but Cody is one of those rare specimens who means what he says, says what he means. Maybe Cork won’t measure up, but under the Code of Cody, you approach it as though they will. And that’s how Kilkenny keep on winning.