Landers: Relationship between Shefflin and Cody 'entrenched'

Kilkenny’s manager Brian Cody and Henry Shefflin of Galway after the game. ©INPHO/James Crombie

All-Ireland winning Cork captain Mark Landers believes the relationship between Henry Shefflin and Brian Cody has been permanently affected by their cold exchanges at the end of the recent Galway-Kilkenny games.

Following Cody’s frostiness in Salthill last month, there was a standoff between the pair at the end of Saturday’s Leinster final, one that was broken by Shefflin’s decision to make his way over to his old boss some five minutes after the full-time whistle.

“I don’t see there being any coming back from this. It happens in sport, it happens in business; two people get entrenched and it is very, very difficult to unravel that,” said Landers of the Cody-Shefflin relationship on the Irish Examiner GAA podcast.

“The fact that Henry backs away from the handshake without turning his back on him, he kept staring at him shaking his head, which to me [means] something was definitely said, and I just think it is very disappointing.

“I am just really disappointed for the game overall, two guys who were in the trenches for so long together, I just think it doesn’t send out the right signal to GAA people in general. We are in the main very, very sporting.

“I can’t actually say Henry left himself down. I am going to say the same thing I said [after the Salthill game], I am a bit disappointed with Brian.”

The former Cork defender called on Croke Park to introduce a protocol whereby post-match handshakes between opposing managers are either compulsory or they're not.

“The GAA actually have an issue on their hands right now that there has to be a protocol put in place immediately for the managers. It’s either there is going to be a handshake or there is no handshake. Something needs to become official.”

Former Kilkenny centre-back Brian Hogan, who played under Cody and alongside Shefflin for 11 years, was hoping the pair would immediately meet at the final whistle, shake hands, and put to bed the sideshow surrounding the pair.

“The handshake looked fairly cold, short, brief. Henry moved away and I don’t know what the shake of the head was about. Only Henry and Brian know that,” Hogan remarked.

The seven-time All-Ireland winner said Galway, at times, “were more interested in squaring up and shoving lads and this kind of thing. They got distracted a bit”.