Brian Cody always keeps Cats ‘driving on’

Experience is everything. When Michael Fennelly pulled up in the All-Ireland semi-final replay with Waterford, it looked a serious injury, and so it proved: the Kilkenny midfielder was out for the rest of the season with an achilles tendon problem. Scratch one big name for this weekend.

In the run-up to this weekend’s All-Ireland final, manager Brian Cody spoke about Fennelly: “He had a huge influence on us getting to the final and now he can’t play in the final — that’s tough, that’s cruel and that’s sport, but Michael Fennelly is not available to us — there isn’t Michael Fennellys around the place.

"We’re a panel, we always have been a panel and always will be a panel and the panel takes over and we drive on.”