'100%, we're circling the wagons' - Kilkenny aiming to get back on track with derby win

Brian Cody is expecting the Cats to stand up to a strong Wexford challenge this weekend. 

Pictured at the Eddie Keher Appreciation Evening in Hotel Kilkenny this week were Babs Keating, Eddie Keher, Brian Cody and Noel Skehan. The event was organised by Rower-Inistioge in honour of their favourite son Keher as they fundraise for a statue to be erected in his honour of their favourite son in Inistioge. Also at the event were other hurlers stars such as Tommy Walsh, Walter Walsh, Pat Hartigan and Tony Doran. Pic: Willie Dempsey

Thursday night in downtown Kilkenny and the natives are relatively quiet.

An appreciation night for Eddie Keher as his beloved club The Rower-Inistioge raise funds to erect a statue in the honour has largely been a joyous occasion. A reminder of the great man’s heroics and the towering standards on which the county has been set.

However, the team’s troubles of late have cast a pall over proceedings. In the crowd, those imbibing, drink a little deeper. Five days after Kilkenny’s biggest championship defeat, the wounds remain open.

Wexford giants Tony Doran and Teddy O’Connor, in attendance to honour their old foe turned friend Keher, are polite and sense a Kilkenny riposte at the weekend but there can be no mistaking the blood in the water.

To nervous laughter in the crowd, MC Marty Morrissey asks a panel of Noel Skehan, Ned Quinn, Brian Cody and Tommy Walsh to grasp the nettle and talk about the crucial, upcoming game with Wexford. Former county chairman and secretary Quinn boldly takes the microphone and says Kilkenny will win by five points. “And Ned don’t tell lies,” adds Skehan.

“I’m waiting for Brian Cody to respond,” Morrissey says. “Not for the first time, Marty,” quips Cody. In good cheer, Morrissey refers to their exchange about the penalty won by Martin Comerford in the 2009 All-Ireland final win but Cody’s not playing for time. His answer is firm.

“Wexford are absolutely going to come and it’s going to be a real challenge for us. But I know from the people involved like Derek (Lyng) and the lads that they’re going to give it absolutely everything.

“If we win on Saturday evening, everything is back on track, we drive on. The requirement is to get out of Leinster and that’s it. The last two All-Ireland semi-finals, we could have won both of them. There is pessimism around the place now but we have every reason to be optimistic. It’s about backing players, it’s about backing the lads involved. It’s very important that it happens.” 

Earlier in the evening, Walsh had spoken about how much of a lift he received from Keher following the 2012 Leinster final loss to Galway. Tullaroan were playing a club league game the week following the 10-point defeat to Galway and Keher congratulated him on his performance after the game. “I wanted to play Galway the next day after that,” he recalled.

As a former player himself, having club-mates in the current set-up, Walsh is acutely aware of the need to support following another hefty defeat to Galway.

He tells the Irish Examiner of another time a great picked him up. 

“In 2018, we lost a county (intermediate) final, we were down in the dumps for a couple of months and I remember the great Joe Hennessy from ‘The Village’ (James Stephens). A great guy, great club man, great Kilkenny man. He pulled me aside there in a car park there in Loughboy, and unbelievable words, and from that moment on, my head was up.” 

Walsh very much sees himself in the Keher and Hennessy role now: giving back what he got. He is obviously not going to say if he has been in touch with players this past week, but you imagine he has.

“They have a great saying for the Kilkenny underage development squad, ‘Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí’ – praise the young and they will come. That's the way you have to do it, and you don't go around giving false praise, you encourage them for the work that they are doing.

“So 100%, we're circling the wagons, and everybody has different ways of doing it. Yes, you'll have lads that talk straight like the Darragh Ó Sés and the Kerry lads. We have them in Kilkenny as well, but they're genuine behind it. There's no one trying to get clickbait here, there's no one trying to get soundbites. These lads, they mean the absolute best, and they're trying to drive it on, and 100% we're circling the wagons here.

“Kilkenny hurling, it's like Brazil with the soccer, it's like New Zealand with the rugby. This is our sport, this is our life. When you're in the hurling fields seven days of the week, sure, it is your life. It means so much.” 

The Kilkenny support would appear to have waned in recent times but it’s something that must be put in context, says Walsh. “It’s often thrown at Kilkenny, and I don't agree with it or believe in it at all, because we're a small county, but we're on the fields. You can't be everywhere. Camogie is so strong now, hurling is so strong.

“When I was growing up, the first hurling team you were part of was under 14. Now, you've U6s, U8s, U10s, 12s, 14s, 16s, 18s. There's probably triple, quadruple the amount of teams, and the amount of people that are involved.

“There's more organised sport, so you're bringing these young lads everywhere, and you can't be everywhere, so a person mightn't be in Nowlan Park, or up in Pearse Stadium, because they're probably somewhere else. They're probably on a hurling field, or they could be busy, but they are supporting it.” Walsh is glad that it’s a derby game following what happened in Pearse Stadium. It will redouble the focus of players who he maintains can get back to winning ways.

“The whole county is behind these players. We all know, like, you don't turn into bad players overnight. We’ve seen these players with Kilkenny perform brilliantly on the biggest of stages, under the most pressure of all time, and we've seen them doing it with their clubs on big stages, so we know that they can do it, and we're fully behind them.”