Master Brian Cody well acquainted with teacher Derek McGrath

Brian Cody knows the man down the sideline this Sunday better than most. The Kilkenny manager was invited down to De La Salle College to speak to the school team a few years ago by Derek McGrath.

Back then McGrath was a colleges coach. This weekend his Waterford side take on Cody’s side in an All-Ireland semi-final.

“Totally committed and genuine and down to earth,” is Cody’s description of McGrath. The Kilkenny boss is used to questions about Waterford.

“I think they’ve tremendous skill, right throughout the team, from the goalkeeper right throughout to the corner-forwards, plus their subs coming on — younger lads coming on.

“And I’ve seen that skill developing over the last few years with them, not that they haven’t always had skill, they’ve had terrific hurlers over the years, but I think this particular group of hurlers are very, very skilful.

“Plus they have terrific experience there, they have Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh, Kevin Moran, Noel Connors.

“They have great athleticism and pace so they have a huge amount going for them and they’re playing the particular way they’re playing, but they’re capable of tweaking it at any stage as well.

“They’re being labelled as being very, very defensive, setting up with sweepers or whatever it is, but they’re getting huge scores, attacking at pace massively and to me they’re just very, very skilful.” Ah yes, the sweeper system.

Cody doesn’t quite accept this year’s fad: “I don’t look at them as just being a sweeper team at all, and the lad who was playing mostly as a sweeper, Tadhg de Burca, is an exceptionally talented hurler.

“They have the ability to defend, the ability to attack, they work very, very hard, they are outstanding on breaking ball.

“They do the basics very, very well and they attack from all over the field and they play with great freedom as well, you can see them shooting for points from everywhere, and that’s because they have this belief in themselves. And they have the players who can do that as well. So can they win the All-Ireland? There’s no doubt about it that they could win the All-Ireland.” Well, talking of tactics, what about the revolution supposedly ushered in by the 2013 All-Ireland final? Is that over now?

“I never saw it that way. I’ve never seen this . . . to me, the fundamentals of the game are the same, the game is a game of speed and skill and strength and determination and everything else.

“It is everything that should be required of any sport and that hasn’t changed. Different teams will bring different things to the table on different years and on different occasions.

“The challenge is there for all the other teams to bring their own systems or type of play, or whatever they bring to it.

“And that’s the way it is, I’ve never thought at all that the world is going to change because anybody brings anything in particular. Clare brought a terrific brand of skilful hurling to it and every other county has done the same thing as well.” Between retirements and injuries Cody and his management have had to regenerate their panel this season.

“If you consider the league, we didn’t have the Shamrocks’ players available then, we also had a lot of injuries as well so we didn’t have all the players who are now part of our panel available for those matches.

“Then obviously you’re using other players and trying to keep the thing as competitive as possible, and you’re looking at players who we have in training with us and they get the opportunity, they mightn’t even get game time during the league but they’re getting game time in training and they’re obviously on the radar. I’m not sure if it’s a new dynamic but I suppose we weren’t as bereft of as many players for league matches in other years.” Some of those injury concerns remain — the likes of Richie Power and Jackie Tyrrell are on the sideline this weekend.

“Obviously I’d feel sorry for the lads who are injured,” says Cody. “But that’s as far as it goes because dwelling on injuries brings a negativity to the people you’re working with and I would always just have a real confidence in the panel of players we have. I would always view it that as once we decide that’s our panel, then I would have absolute confidence in their ability to do a job.

“What do you want from players? You want them to come in and do a job for the team and everybody talks about stand-out players and marquee players and that’s understandable, and they’re the ones that maybe the crowds go to see. But I would always love to have a player who is capable of doing a job for the team and that might go very, very unnoticed at times. To me, it’s everything.”