This is Cody. This is what he does

SO here he is at the All Ireland press conference in Langton’s, a man utterly at ease with himself and the universe.

“Completely relaxed” (his own words), mellow, back where he wants to be. Back where he exists to be. One half-expects him to put his feet up on the table and light a cigar. Kilkenny are in the All Ireland final, Cody’s in his heaven and all’s right with the world.

All the favourite terms and tropes are employed. Honesty. The strength of the collective. (“It’s the panel. Panel panel panel.”) Savage, as in an All Ireland final being “a savage place to be”. If you couldn’t enjoy it, and maybe some people didn’t... “Well, I always enjoy it. The alternative is that you are looking at someone else playing in it.”