Brian Cody is the picture of serenity. It is hard to imagine that demons flit about that easy disposition, that troubles could cloud his constant rosy glow, disturb his leisurely jaunt or that relaxed speaking style. It is near midnight and Cody is stretched in the dining-room of a local hotel, a dozen ears for company, tape recorders silently wheeling.
Cody is a schoolteacher and commands attention with an easy nonchalance. He is used to being under scrutiny. From afar he looks like he is in the midst of delivering some hair-raising yarn. Which, of course, in many respects he is. His current predicament is not to be treated lightly. Tomorrow's hurling final is fraught with pitfalls for Kilkenny. For the third year running, they will take the sod in Croke Park as favourites. Cody has excelled in his two-year term managing the team but a loss tomorrow would represent a first in the history of the hurling championship.
If they are beaten, Kilkenny become the first team to fall short in three consecutive All-Ireland finals. It is a measure of their excellence that this bunch have returned after last September's defeat by Cork. While there is optimism and bunting in the county, same as any year, there is also cold worry. Recollections of the last two Septembers of gloom and analysis are fresh, for team and supporters alike.
"Is it different this year? I suppose it is in a way," muses Cody.
"I mean, I only came into the job after the 1998 defeat, it was my first year but the team were coming off that loss coming into last year's final. So the difficulties this game presents are the same. It is a pressure situation; the massive interest in the game brings concerns of its own. But hurling needs that, it is good for the game. It is just about coping with that, because you can't hide from it."
This time last year, Kilkenny were caught flat. On an insipid, damp day they couldn't get the goal machine cranking, and Cork, buoyed by fearless youth, made a rush in the end. Cody's team had looked so good on occasions last year that it has been hard to tinker with it. And the majority of the cast has stayed the same.
"Now you can isolate the All-Ireland final and base judgment of our team on that day alone and argue that we didn't look up to it that day. Because we didn't. But on other days, we put in some powerful games and were a very good team. We have a few new players there now, Noel Hickey at full back and Eamonn Kennedy in the centre, the backbone of the team and they've done well this year," he says.
"You go with certain players and hope it works out. That John Power is going so well is a big thing, we moved Brian McEvoy to midfield because Denis Byrne just prefers wing forward and is more comfortable there. Things happen like that and later on, they are looked upon as inspirational moves or whatever, but very often it just happens."
The sport is random, indiscriminate when it comes to return on effort. Kilkenny desperately wanted last year's All-Ireland and its public expected. Although there was a degree of shock and recrimination in September 1998 when Offaly made hay after a summer of discontent, a deep mourning followed last year's loss.
"An encouraging thing was that when we held a bit of training for lads we were considering asking on to the panel, a lot of the current players came along of their own accord. And they were asking when we were getting back, they were anxious to get training again. And the reason behind it is simple enough," says Cody.
"At the end of the day, we are hurlers, it's the game we play, the game we love. It was shattering to lose last year. I mean, I have lost before and this was heartbreaking. But like everything else, time heals these things. It's not the end of the world, it is not death. You have to experience death to realise it's not that. It was ferocious hard to lose, coming back to Kilkenny was hard but you carry on. And the next season comes."
Then, last autumn, as those in the Kilkenny heartland prepared for another sombre period of hibernation, word of an assault on PJ Delaney late on a Saturday night in Thurles emerged.
Kilkenny were playing the under-21 final against Galway and as word filtered around the stadium, the importance of the contest paled. Delaney, who had come on a substitute against Cork just weeks earlier, had friends and team-mates in the ground. People were sickened.
"The single thing that put the whole All-Ireland thing in context was what happened to PJ. There we were in an under-21 final a week after losing to Cork and Henry Shefflin and Michael Kavanagh were trying to raise themselves for that. It was during that match that I heard about PJ.
"The entire county was suddenly transformed from a state of being miserable about the All-Ireland loss to just willing that PJ would get better. In Cork, the celebrations were also tempered by news of what happened to PJ and in fairness to their players, they were regular visitors of his as well. And that's the side of hurling that makes it really worthwhile, there is a decency in all hurling people that really shows itself.
"Every team is dying to win an All-Ireland, you'd almost kill to win and it seems so huge, so important. The PJ Delaney incident changed all that and it would have taken over as well if we'd won the All-Ireland. What happened was just too horrific to let anything matter ahead of it."
Delaney is making a slow recovery and his team-mates have keenly felt his absence from training. Although they were a bit rusty on some league afternoons, their championship campaign has been a mix of flair and fortitude.
Last year's loss seems to have bought Cody and his team a degree of public latitude, in marked contrast to what happened when Kilkenny lost the 1998 All-Ireland. Cody's cousin, Kevin Fennelly, was manager at that time, a straight-talking decision maker who didn't believe in soft apologies. He decided to axe some old hands, including John Power.
"We had to get rid of a few. That's business. There's nothing I could do. I make no apologies for that," Fennelly said then.
In many respects, Fennelly had enjoyed a fine year, and was unfortunate not to have delivered an All-Ireland. But borrowing his own line on hard business, the county board replaced him with Cody, whose gentler approach was easier on the collective constitution. He was in some respects a surprise in that he had no inter-county management experience.
After accepting the post, Cody admitted that as a player, he had once believed his days with Kilkenny would stretch forever. He enjoyed a distinguished career with his county, characterised by one dark episode. A natural defender who won an All-Ireland at half back in 1975, Cody was selected at full forward for the 1978 All-Ireland final against Cork.
The experiment misfired. Martin O'Doherty kept him scoreless as the Leesiders claimed a three-in-a-row. The despondent homecoming to Kilkenny was marked by an ugly character assassination of Cody, including verbal abuse and spitting.
He was 24 years of age. He found himself dropped from the panel when training resumed the next season. He swallowed the slights and set about re-establishing his claims for a place.
Despite missing out on the 1979 success, he was restored as full back and captain when Kilkenny triumphed in 1982. A year later, he marked Jimmy Barry-Murphy of Cork as his team took back-to-back All-Ireland wins.
The slow-burning resolution with which he redeemed himself underlines his quiet strength. He, above all others could empathise with John Power after recalling him to the panel for the 1998 season.
The John Lockes man had a fitful year: impressive in the semi-final win against Clare, but outplayed in the All-Ireland loss by Cork's Brian Corcoran. But Cody demonstrated his patience and Power, at 34, has rewarded him by putting in a season which has seen him re-emerge as the pre-eminent player in that position.
Likewise, Kilkenny have re-emerged more polished than ever, cutting through this All-Ireland series with cold-eyed intent.
"This time last year we were as ready as we could have been," says Cody. "I wanted that All-Ireland as badly as I wanted anything before. We all wanted it. But the reality is that, even though Offaly won it two years ago, they will want it just as badly now."
He means it. Cody has stared down the barrel of a gun before and walked away without flinching. When the earth starts to quake tomorrow, there won't be a calmer man in the stadium.
