Codyless Cats will be ‘weird’

Galway star Joe Canning admits it will be “weird” to be playing Kilkenny on Sunday without Brian Cody on the sidelines.The All-Star said that while there is a great rivalry between the counties, there is enormous respect for Cody in Galway.

The Kilkenny boss is recovering from heart surgery and selector Martin Fogarty and team trainer Michael Dempsey will take charge of the Cats for Sunday’s league semi-final in Thurles.

“I hope Brian recovers and gets back on the sideline fairly quick,” said Canning. “He is a character in the GAA and it is going to be weird with him not being there on the sideline. But hopefully he can get back sooner rather than later.”

Canning is not sure what impact, if any, Cody’s absence may have on Sunday’s encounter but said he is hopeful Galway can up the gears in the semi-final after an indifferent league campaign. “We were lucky to get into it I suppose. We were bottom of the table and I think we had the worst scoring difference of all the teams in the league. We had an up and down league, but we were trying out new things. We are just looking forward to getting another match and that’s all you want to be playing these months.”

Galway defeated Kilkenny in the opening round of the campaign, while they met three times in the championship last year with the Tribesmen winning the Leinster final before the Cats got revenge in the All-Ireland final replay.

“I don’t think those games will have any bearing on Sunday. It is another game at the end of the day.”