Kilkenny needed a new man in charge, says Power

Richie Power Senior has hailed his former team-mate Brian Cody's achievements but felt he should have stepped down

Tue, 12 Jan, 2021 - 17:40

John Fogarty

Richie Power Senior believes his former Kilkenny team-mate Brian Cody should have stepped down as manager for the upcoming season.

On Monday night, the county board ratified Cody for a 23rd season in charge but the Carrickshock man had hoped there would be a new man at the helm.

“After the Waterford game, the feeling around the county was maybe time had come for a change,” says Power.

“Nobody can ever take away from the achievements of Brian. A lot of players have played under him for a long time and I sensed a new voice, a new face might get another couple of years out of TJ Reid, Colin Fennelly, and these guys.

“The process in Kilkenny is that there is a committee of the county board that appoints managers whereas years ago clubs had the major say in it.

Nobody will achieve what Brian has achieved, the man has a phenomenal record but I stayed too long managing my own club and sometimes you have to stand back and let in a new voice and keep the show on the road.”

As things stand, Power concedes he doesn’t hold out much hope of Kilkenny winning this year’s All-Ireland and is troubled by how under-age teams have been performing.

“It’s hard to see it because we are definitely down in the pack. There are three or four counties better than us at the moment and we’re in with another three or four counties below.

“I would be very concerned about our underage structures too. It’s a huge worry for Kilkenny. I’d be looking at it closely and would have been heavily involved with the clubs over the years and I just think we have taken our eye off the ball. We’re definitely after slipping at under-age level.

If you look at our U20 team against Galway, we were very disappointing. Any genuine Kilkenny GAA person in the county watching that team and the senior team would have concerns.”

Cody’s reappointment came on the same night Kilkenny’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Waterford was being replayed on TG4. It’s a game that should make those involved sit up and take notice of what needs to be changed, says Power.

“We were in big trouble when Waterford were running at us and taking us on.

“We’ve got to go back to when we had the likes of Michael Fennelly and Cha Fitzpatrick in the middle of the field and having one of them sit on our half-back line and then get good quality ball into our forwards.

“When we were very successful we always had one our midfield men sitting back as a second centre-back and Michael Fennelly was excellent at that.”

Power hopes to see Cody unearth a few more players to improve Kilkenny’s lot in 2021.

“We definitely have to look at picking up three or four players. I’m saying the garden isn’t rosy but then you look at the Shamrocks winning a second All-Ireland title in a row last year and clubs at the lower levels going well. There could be more players out there for Kilkenny and they are needed.”