Brian Cody: They were much better than us

Brian Cody was pointing towards nothing only a poor performance in explaining Kilkenny’s nine-point defeat.

Kilkenny were without six of the team that started last year’s All-Ireland final as their lack of resources was shown up but there were no gripes from their manager.

“Colin (Fennelly) was close to being able to play but we wouldn’t take a chance with him. Paul Murphy is not right, Michael (Fennelly) is not right and Conor Fogarty is still not back either. But at the end of the day, it’s not about who we were missing; it’s about who we were playing, because we talk ourselves about our panel. We use our panel and that’s it.”