Brian Cody: Shefflin the best I’ve ever seen

With the matter of a relegation play-off negotiated successfully, Brian Cody last night hailed Henry Shefflin as the best hurler he has ever seen.

Before and at the time of JJ Delaney’s retirement, Cody classed the Johnstown player as the best defender he had the privilege of watching.

He went one further with Shefflin. “Have I seen a better hurler than Henry? I haven’t seen a better hurler than Henry. But then again, neither have most people.

“His greatest legacy at the end of the day is he has set the example for every Kilkenny player for what it takes as he was capable of adorning the game but he chose to work as hard as any player who ever walked out on Croke Park to allow him to adorn the game and that’s something that is a great lesson for everybody.”

Cody lauded Shefflin’s altruistic contribution to his Kilkenny sides when he was asked would the county have won so much without him.

“He’s a team player, the quintessential team player. You can never answer that question at all because he was part of a package that was out there, part of a group of people who performed on a very regular basis to achieve what they have achieved and he was an absolute vital part of it, there’s no doubt about that.

“But, at the end of the day, his greatest strength was that he contributed to the whole group of people who were there, as did everybody else. What he was capable of doing was absolutely way up there, obviously.”

Cody was keen to put Shefflin’s retirement in perspective.

“He’s not mourning so there’s no point in anybody else mourning either. There’s no point in mourning about it. Look back and say, ‘What a player, what a career’. It was good, it was great, it was fantastic. That’s the way sport goes. To be able to choose to retire at 36 is something an awful lot of people would love to be able to do and lots don’t get that opportunity.”

Davy Fitzgerald added to Cody’s commendation of Shefflin: “Henry Shefflin was one of a kind, a player with talent, a player with vision but most of all, especially when I played against him, his leadership on the field —when Kilkenny were in trouble at times he made them tick. He absolutely rounded the troops and made them tick. We won’t see too many Henry Shefflins playing hurling and I’m glad to say I played against him a number of times. He owes the game nothing and every accolade he gets he totally deserves.”

After Shefflin’s news on the same day as the death of seven-time All-Ireland winning coach Monsignor Tommy Maher, Cody acknowledged the build-up to yesterday’s relegation clash was unusual.

Regarding Maher’s death, he said: “There is a huge hurling connection there for so many people. The players on the field today wouldn’t have remembered him, but they would have known about the outstanding contribution that he had made. But anyone who would have been part and parcel of his time would have realised the effect of what had happened.

“Henry retiring was a huge situation going on at the same time, but at the end of the day, the game still went ahead and players had to focus on the game and put distractions aside, because that is the way it had to be.”