DJ Carey: Brian Cody will oversee period of transition

DJ Carey believes nobody is better placed to oversee Kilkenny senior hurling’s period of transition than Brian Cody.

The 11-time All-Ireland winning manager was confirmed for a 19th season on Monday evening and his former star player Carey anticipates he may have to use the National League to blood new talent after falling short in this year’s All-Ireland final.

“Everybody would have wanted him to stay on and it was no real surprise when the news came through,” said the Young Irelands man.

“There is a little bit of transition ahead and we need to find a few more players to make the panel stronger.

“I wouldn’t like to be telling a man like Brian what to do and I’m not but it would be encouraging to see four, five or six players tried out in the National League for the entirety of the competition.”

The full-back line came in for sharp criticism this year but Carey says: “They are all good hurlers in the full-back line so it would be unfair to focus on them but they got exposed. We haven’t as many options there as we would want so I’m not sure the personnel can be blamed entirely. Joey Holden’s best position is in the half-back line but in a lot of games he finds himself there and guys just have to adapt to different position. Guys need to be putting pressure on them as well.”

He also highlights their fair play in September’s decider. “People may laugh at me when I say this but Kilkenny didn’t go down any dirty route on Seamus Callanan or Bubbles O’Dwyer. They tried to hurl them for the 70 minutes in the All-Ireland final. I don’t think either of those guys came off the field thinking Kilkenny defenders were trying to do them. I’m not saying they should have but they were let hurl and they did cause most of the damage.”

Cody’s sparing use of the bench would appear to indicate that his pool of resources isn’t as deep as it once was. Carey believes that behaviour reflects more on the panel than the manager. “I’m not sure how many guys were ready to come off the bench this year.

“We had a poor U21 championship, beaten in the minor championship at an early stage although we had a very successful intermediate campaign. Intermediate nowadays is the second best team in Kilkenny so we need to see who we can bring off that team. A guy could step up into the senior team and be a massive success. Who knows, it could be somebody from left field that turns out to be one of the best performers in 2017.”