Brian Cody: 'Everything from now on is geared towards the championship'

Brian Cody: 'Everything from now on is geared towards the championship'. Picture: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Everything now starts pointing towards the championship.

That was the view of Brian Cody after Sunday’s league game — with just a few short weeks to the Leinster championship, the Kilkenny manager was already turning his thoughts to the high summer even as the league game next weekend, against Clare, was mentioned.

“Clare are playing really, really well, they had a bad start to the league but since then they’ve been very strong, they were very strong on Saturday as well.

“We’re getting close to the championship now, and everything from now on is geared towards the championship — next weekend is a big test for us. Like any match we want to win, but being so close to the championship, everything is geared towards that, so next weekend is terrific, from that point of view. Going to Ennis to play Clare, that’s a big challenge any time.”

With that in mind Cody is hopeful some big names may return to the fray next weekend: “Any player that hasn’t been seen yet, there’s a reason for that, and it’s injury. We have a few lads back on the pitch the other night, and potentially some of them might be able to play some part in next weekend’s game.

“Richie Leahy, Walter Walsh, Niall Brassil, Ciaran Wallace, they’ve made some good progress and were out on the pitch hurling the other night, so we might potentially get some game time into some of them next weekend.”

It’ll make for a tricky challenge, picking the championship team.

“The reason we hope it’ll be difficult to pick the team this year is the quality of the competition for places,” said Cody.

“We’re happy we have that, there are good players ready to come back, so we have choices to make, decisions to make, but I believe we’re doing that from a position of strength rather than the other way around.”