The 10 commandments of Brian Cody

We sent Michael Moynihan to Kilkenny last week to speak to Brian Cody. This is what he brought back in tablets of stone.

All-Ireland SHC final replay

Kilkenny v Tipperary

Saturday: Croke Park, 5pm

1. Stay on the sideline near the action.

“I’m kind of stuck in a rut down there, to be honest. I’ve never gone anywhere else, except at one time they decided to put me in the stand for something or other for one game.

“I don’t ever think of being anywhere else. It’s, for me, where I need to be. Where I want to be. That’s the way I do it.

“Most people do that anyway. There are some people that go up for a bit of height or whatever. That’s fine, too.”

2. Treat defending as a “whole-team thing”.

“Every defender would obviously like to keep his man scoreless if at all possible, obviously, but it’s a whole-team thing nowadays, defending.

“You look at what Tipperary had, what, three wides, and some of the scores were superb. Some of our scores were excellent as well. It’s easy to talk about but you defend all over the field. It’s certainly a big place up there, Croke Park. It’s easy enough to create space.”

3. Making substitutions is difficult.

“Most people here probably think I take too long to do it, that’s for sure, but that’s another day’s work.

“It’s a hard thing to do, for starters, to take a player off. There’s no enjoyment in that. It’s a brutal thing to be doing for a player and we’re not devoid of the feelings that the players would have, and the understanding that they have.

“We hate doing that but we do what we have to do. I never, ever would claim to be the kind of fella who knows exactly what to do when I’m on the sideline – I don’t.”

4. Don’t ignore the man taken off.

“Would I have feelings for the fella? Most definitely. You’d talk to him.

“You’d judge it again.Some fellas are better off just left alone and maybe have a chat with him the next day or sometimes you go to a fella straightaway or whatever it is. “I don’t tend to go over to a fella when he’s coming off the pitch and shake hands with him.

For what? Some people do that. Would I have absolute respect, a sense of disappointment that that player feels? It’s absolutely huge.”

5. Park the emotions about a game.

“Like I said at the time (after the drawn final) I didn’t have many particular feelings at the time, to be honest about it.

“They had a free and for the quality of player (John O’Dwyer) who was hitting it — he’s scored them before.

“I was thinking, I maybe said to Michael Dempsey, ‘he’ll score this, they’re a point up and we have to go down and get a point to equalise it’. “Suddenly he missed it and then the final whistle blew — and you almost didn’t have time to have any sort of (feelings). I didn’t anyway.”

6 . . . and then keep them parked until after the replay.

“Since then I have no feelings, it isn’t relief, it isn’t disappointment, it’s great to be training again for the All-Ireland final. You’d always think there is room for improvement and you’d love to think we will improve but the next game will take on its own course again. “What we want is to be able to play at the level that’s required to win the game. That means giving everything we have for starters.

“That’s going to happen. It doesn’t mean every player is going to play to the level he would love to play. That doesn’t happen either.”

7. An unsettled team? So what?

“Everybody could name 12-13 players who are probably going to start somewhere.

Then there may be two three positions you could call ‘up for grabs’ if you like. “Often in our case it’s because of the quality of options we have.

“ You go on form, what you see, what has been happening up to now and on the day you probably go on your gut instinct.

“We’re still around, so it’s going OK.”

8. Acknowledge the opposition.

“We played Tipperary in the league final this year and after 70 minutes it was a draw; we played an All-Ireland final this year and after 70 minutes it was a draw.

“Do I know they could beat us on a given day? I’m positively certain they could. I’m certain we could beat them too, there’s nothing between both teams.”

9. Point out that entertainment comes indifferent guises.

“Everybody talks about the quality of the game the last day and it was top notch, superb, but it could be completely different the next day and still be top notch.

“It could take on a different life, be low-scoring and still provide huge quality.

“I have no idea how it is going to be but that it is going to take a huge effort from both teams.”

10. Let the penalty taker make his owndecisions.

“Generally during the game, not trying to give away any secrets, if the penalty taker himself has confidence in his ability . . . I think all the penalty takers would love, during the game, first-half or whenever, they’d fancy themselves to have a go.

“It depends on how they’re feeling but I would always feel that the person taking the penalty kind of nearly decides himself — unlessyou’re thinking, coming towards the end of a game, you have to do something.

“Then you’d tell him ‘go for a point, go for a goal whatever...but generally it’s something they have to decide themselves.

“They have to feel right.”