Just like old times, but Cody not getting carried away

That old saying about absence and what it does for the heart sprang to mind yesterday evening as members of Kilkenny’s backroom staff stood underneath the Hogan Stand having their pictures taken with the Bob O’Keeffe Cup.

It isn’t so long since snaps of Liam MacCarthy itself, standing unattended amidst the din of some festival or other in the Marble City, were doing the rounds such was the frequency with which the game’s most prized possession resided in the south-east.

In every other way, this felt like old times.