AS IF THERE wasn't enough distinction in their latest All-Ireland success - their first three-in-a-row achieved on the field of play, their record 31st senior hurling title, their 23-point winning margin - they then go and claim another first when the man of the match award goes to their manager.
Clearly this Kilkenny team don't follow trends, they set them.
So it made for unusual circumstances at the team hotel yesterday when we sought out Brian Cody to ask him how it felt to be named RTÉ's man of the match. Little wonder he was beaming with such a happy glow.
"I think it made up for the times I should have got it and didn't get it," he said of the award, not completely joking.
"No, sure it was completely unexpected. I was sitting there thinking in my own head who would they give it to, or who would I give it to, and I was finding it impossible to make my own mind up. Because it was a serious, serious team performance."
Cody, however, is now a serious, serious manager. Sunday's win over Waterford brought him his sixth All-Ireland success from eight finals.
Or put another way, his team have played 44 championship matches since he took over in 1999, winning 38, drawing one, and losing five.
Typically, he rejects the slightest hint of greatness, either himself, or his team. He's simply in it for that winning feeling, the deep sense of satisfaction that comes with the final whistle on All-Ireland Sunday.
"Normally, after a tight game, it is relief, then exhilaration. To be fair, it would be silly for me to say that feeling didn't come a lot earlier on Sunday.
"But to me, it's just straightforward. There is no magic to it. I work with great people. People who get the team fit, perfectly. That's Michael Dempsey and Noel Richardson. Then there's the medical and physio team. But I'm forever saying that it's not possible to put into players what's not already there. That drive, that ambition, to be successful. We have a great set-up as well, but it's not dependent on me. It's dependent on everyone doing their own bit."
In the end, Kilkenny's utter dominance in Sunday's final has inevitably shifted thoughts from the present to the future, such as when, if ever, this dominance will end.
"Look, that's exactly the same as what was being said to the Cork team a couple of years ago," said Cody. "And the same as what was being said to me here back in 2003. Then we came along and didn't win in 2004, obviously. Or 2005. So sport is sport.
"You know these things won't last. You just get what you can out of them."
"I was aware the whole time that the three-in-a-row was a very special thing for Kilkenny, the supporters, and for everyone involved in hurling.
"The three-in-a-row is a kind of magical thing, or mythical thing. And also to go ahead on the roll of honour, that's serious and special as well.
"It didn't occupy my thoughts, genuinely, but that if we did win, it was something for afterwards, and that's now. So that's nice. The same with four-in-a-row. That's not going to occupy my thoughts right now."
There was a word of praise too for Waterford, not that Cody sympathised with some of the support sent their way: "Sure Waterford have been a super team over the last number of years, really adorned the game. I know a lot of people were saying that if they were in the final last year they would have beaten Kilkenny.
"There was a feeling this time as well that Waterford had a serious chance.
"I heard, from my spies that read the papers, that the feeling was that if Waterford were close with 10 minutes to go then they would more than likely win.
"It didn't make a lot of sense to me, that talk. But it helped us into gear, and I suppose that's motivation for our players."
Again, typically, he suspended any talk about his own future, except of course to state the obvious: Kilkenny will be around for a while yet.
"As for my own future, I haven't the slightest idea, no more than I ever had. I won't even think about now. I'll just carry on, and enjoy what's after happening. Some day it will dawn on me, and that will be it."
