Brian Cody helped talk TJ Reid out of quitting Kilkenny squad

TJ Reid considered quitting the Kilkenny panel in 2012 before a frank talk with manager Brian Cody helped change his mind.

As Reid looks set to be voted Hurler of the Year next month, it seems mind-boggling to think he was close to quitting the inter-county scene only three years ago.

But those thoughts did enter his head and only for an intervention by his Ballyhale Shamrocks team-mate Henry Shefflin, Reid may have departed the squad.

Shefflin touches on the subject in his recently-published autobiography, and Reid acknowledges his illustrious friend was a huge help to him after Cody dropped him for the All-Ireland quarter-final win over Limerick following a mediocre display in the Leinster final defeat to Galway.

“I came into the set-up as a young man,” said Reid who lines out with Shefflin for Ballyhale against O’Loughlin Gaels in Sunday’s county semi-final. “The Kilkenny team was evolving and Brian Cody was evolving as well in terms of having a ruthless streak in him. I was competing against lads at the peak of their powers — Henry Shefflin, Martin Comerford, Eddie Brennan, Richie Power was there before me, Eoin Larkin was there before me, Derek Lyng and so on. So it was hard to break into it.

“I don’t like talking about it, as all of that is in the past. But I was frustrated, I suppose.

“I was being taken off and getting dropped here and there. As a player, as a young hurler, you just want to be hurling. I was getting annoyed about it. For that game against Limerick I was dropped, and I was annoyed over it. I was thinking about retiring.

“I would be very good friends with Henry. He sat me down and spoke to me. So it was my choice then. I suppose what turned it was that I loved it so much and it would have been hard to walk away from it. I think it was a stepping stone for myself.”

The subsequent chat with Cody was the making of the then 24-year-old, he agrees. “Maybe I opened up to Brian about how I felt about it. After that incident I went on, we won the All-Ireland and I got an All-Star. I suppose some players are maybe afraid to open up to Brian about how you feel about the set-up. I opened up and I think after that I’m after becoming a different player.”

Reid fully expects Cody to be in charge again next season, again motivated by those who have the temerity to question Kilkenny.

“That’s what drives him, I think, the challenge of people putting Kilkenny down. I suppose the supporters were putting us down last year. We had all those retirements. There was questions marks about the Kilkenny team. Who are the leaders? Will the leaders step up to it? Will they flop?

“Even our own supporters were wondering. That was the motivation this year. Because all those leaders went. He’s driven and hates losing. He likes that challenge of competing against great teams.”

Reid and the players were just as determined to prove people wrong. “The public, the media, didn’t write us down for the All-Ireland either. At the start of the year, we were way down the pecking order, we were in the relegation final (in the league). That was a huge motivation.

“There were question marks there if a game had two or three points in it who was going to come on and get the win for us. We hadn’t Henry or Tommy (Walsh) or Brian Hogan so in those terms we didn’t have the best bench but those lads that are on the bench are as good as any in the county.”

There are question marks over the futures of Jackie Tyrrell, Michael Fennelly and Eoin Larkin now but Reid wouldn’t be surprised if all three thirtysomethings make themselves available for selection again next season. He hopes so anyway.

“We’d a lot of retirements last year. In that sense, I hope they all stick around because Jackie and Eoin Larkin there are great leaders in the dressing room. If you start losing more leaders, it could be an empty dressing room.”