Post-game exchanges mere expressions of passion, argues Cody

So what should we call it?

Belly-boxing? Belly-tickling? Woe betide anyone to ascribe a football term to a hurling matter.

No, there wasn’t going to be any memorable phrases coined to describe Brian Cody’s altercation with Anthony Cunningham in injury-time yesterday.

He admitted he was “excited” but only that. Few could blame him for being exercised after Barry Kelly had awarded a contentious free which Joe Canning pointed to ultimately equalise the game.

Afterwards, a gaggle of Galway players stayed outside the players lounge where a number of Kilkenny’s team had entered.

It was hardly a result of their managers’ tête-à-tête. With another 70 minutes at least, they could also be forgiven if they wished not to mingle with men they want to do battle with.

But Cody and Cunningham were pals again following the final whistle although the former, pointing his finger, was still making an appeal to his Galway rival seemingly about the legitimacy of the free won by substitute Davy Glennon.

The Kilkenny boss said: “Look, every person there, there were about 81,000 people there today — every one of them was fairly excited and roaring and fierce passionate at that stage of the game.

“Surely to God the two managers are entitled to be excited. If that’s a strange thing to see then you haven’t been at too many hurling matches.

“It happens every week in club matches and everywhere else. It was a bit of excitement, no big deal, well done Anthony, best of luck, see you in three weeks’ time.”

One thing Cody maintained was his team weren’t cheated out of a victory by the decision although he cryptically said: “I don’t even have a good reputation with the referee, it seems.”

He continued: “We weren’t robbed in this game by a long shot. Galway scored the same amount as us, we scored the same amount as Galway.

“I don’t have any problem at all with the referee. He has a tough job to do, we all have a tough job to do.

“I’m sure I made several mistakes out there during the year’s hurling as well. He’d be some man if he didn’t make mistakes.

“I’m sure every Kilkenny person thought it wasn’t a free, I’m sure every Galway person thought it was a free. The only thing that matters was that Barry Kelly thought it was a free.”

Regarding Kelly’s officiating in general (19 of the 34 scores came from placed balls), Cody was diplomatic.

“I thought the game was played in a very, very straight forward way. People were expecting all sorts of crazy [things] and lunacy at the start of the game.

“There was none of it, absolutely none of it, this talk that they’re going on about is just talk.

“It’s an All-Ireland final, it’s worth bloody well winning so you get out and get stuck into it and that’s it.”

Even though he felt his team were trying “too hard” and were “too fussy” at times in the first-half, Cody refused to acknowledge the idea that Kilkenny had left the game behind having twice gone ahead in the final 10 minutes.

That said, his comments perfectly summed up the air of anti-climax among both parties in what was only his second championship draw as Kilkenny manager (the other being an All-Ireland quarter-final against Clare in 2004).

“It beats losing. Obviously, the plan was to win the game, you know, but you couldn’t be satisfied with not winning but you would certainly be very, very dissatisfied with losing.

“It means we start all over again and that’s it, it doesn’t really matter whether I’m satisfied or dissatisfied.

“It was a decent second-half display for us after a first-half in which Galway were definitely the better team.

“So we put ourselves in a position where we were at least competitive in the second-half and we brought ourselves back into the frame to win the game.

“I mean, they kept themselves in there too and they got a huge score in the second half with that (Niall Burke) goal. That was a massive score obviously and that’s it, that’s the way it panned out and it’s over now, we’ll start planning ahead.”

It was Henry Shefflin’s point from a penalty that had put Kilkenny in the driving seat going into injury-time.

Cody revealed he left it up to his most decorated player to decide what to do.

“Yeah, I shrugged my shoulders and said ‘yeah, do whatever the hell you think yourself’ to be honest about it,” he laughed. “I can’t inspire Henry Shefflin what to do with penalties, or whatever they are. Henry decided that himself and if he had scored it obviously he’d be a genius and if it had been saved he’d be a lunatic.

“So he gave us a score and that score really mattered.”