Hunger the best sauce for Kilkenny

GAA/Hurling: Keith Dugganrecalls how Brian Cody's men ruined Cork's three-in-a-row dream

The hurling year was billed as Cork's tilt at making history and it ended with an All-Ireland final performance from Kilkenny that was primal and majestic. And although the championship year played out along predicted lines, with the eternal heavyweights of the game staring one another down after a fitful summer, they gave us a memorable and ferocious September outing in Croke Park.

By the time it had finished, Kilkenny had obliterated the envied and awesomely synchronised engine that lay at the heart of the Cork running game. For once, the totemic halfback line of Gardiner, Curran and Ó hAilpíin had been bested and Cork, the stylists who never become ruffled by anything, were hounded and harried by men in black and amber shirts all day. Kilkenny made the Croke Park field seem to shrink during that All-Ireland.

They played like a team smarting and angry from previous slights. It did not matter that JJ Delaney, one of the most accomplished defenders of his generation, had been ruled out of the special day with the most cruelly timed injury. Kilkenny permitted themselves no excuses.

"We said we would stay on our own man, track them all the time," said Henry Shefflin afterwards. "It was just hunger for the ball that drove us." Preserving the hunger in Kilkenny's elite players, already fatted on generations of hurling success, has been one of the great achievements of Brian Cody's era.

It is almost shocking to realise that the plum-complexioned, soft-spoken big man has presided over the prestige brand of Kilkenny county for seven years, creating and dismantling three distinct teams and winning four All-Irelands in the process.

Of the four losses he suffered in championship hurling, he made sure his players absorbed every possible lesson from the hurt. The stories of the ferocity of the Nowlan Park training sessions have long become commonplace and on the eve of this year's final, he casually noted that his reputation for 'ruthlessness' did not bother him in the slightest.

His public demeanour has changed little down the years, stubbornly and steadfastly true to his own mind, modest in his self-assessment, watchful of outside perceptions, a poor sufferer of fools and, in those few giddy seconds after the sweet sound of the closing whistle, almost childlike in his infatuation and pride in Kilkenny hurling.

Cody has always maintained that his role as Kilkenny manager is an honour and, though custodian of an inheritance, he has quietly rejected the cult of manager, talking always of the players, the players.

Midway through the summer, he switched James Fitzpatrick to midfield, his preferred position with Ballyhale and, almost instantly, the player went from the still kiddish prodigy "Cha" to being the real deal, all feints and sumptuous catches and killer points scored from the heart of the notoriously tough Clare midfield and the vaunted Cork pairing of Kenny and Jerry O'Connor.

He kept faith with Aidan Fogarty and, with all eyes on the omniscient scoring prowess of Henry Shefflin, the unheralded corner-forward devastated Cork with 1-3 from play. And he waited until after Noel Hickey had shadowed Brian Corcoran through a quiet closing 70 minutes of his hurling life before praising once again the temperament and the hurling acumen of the Dunnamaggin man.

It finished 1-6 to 1-13, a tantalising score line for a Cork team who gave the quest for a three-in-a-row of titles a gallant push. Last year, Cork had advertised their exceptional serenity under pressure allied to an intimidating united front.

Through Munster this summer, they exhibited that again, once more dispatching Clare with a pitch perfect second half and masterfully quieting Tipperary on the marquee Sunday in Thurles. And then came a series of nerveless high-wire acts after a smooth Munster campaign, with single point victories against Limerick and Waterford in two sensationally exciting matches.

That semi-final win over Justin McCarthy's gallant side captured just how finely Cork had managed to perfect the art of winning, with Donal Óg Cusack, in the midst of a peerless goalkeeping season, raising his hurley to halt Ken McGrath's wonderful 90-yard free which would have merited a replay.

Yet again, Waterford had contributed handsomely to the business end of the hurling championship and yet again, they found the semi-final to be a luckless land. Fickle fortune played its role on the other side as well, as Clare and Kilkenny went at it hammer and tongs. As was the trend under Anthony Daly, Clare fine-tuned their game through the qualifying system, inflicting a 2-21 to 0-10 point defeat on Limerick in the process that hastened the end of Joe McKenna's period in charge and threw the Treaty County into chaos.

Clare rolled on and, as ever, questioned Kilkenny all the way. It just wasn't their day, from the rare sight of a bouncing ball deceiving full back Brian Lohan to the late dismissal of his brother Frank after a barnstorming display.

"I was a lucky player, maybe," said a crestfallen Daly afterwards. "As Clare standards go I was lucky anyway. Maybe I was an unlucky manager." It seemed like a fair epitaph when he bowed out in the autumn. Clare never got that lucky bounce under Daly. As Henry Shefflin examined his tally of 1-13 which illuminated the day, he too singled out the breaks of the game.

"I remember one ball, Derek Lyng went to it hit and it broke, smacking against Seán McMahon's hurley and it fell perfectly for me." And so it came down to the big two again. It was a mixed hurling season, with too many predictable matches, the scarifying decline of Wexford and Offaly causing concern and the burst of genius from Tipperary's Eoin Kelly, with a 0-14 strike against Waterford, one of the real highlights.

By the first Sunday in September, Cork and Kilkenny was the tightest of calls. On a day of foiled bids for the record books, Joe Canning's hopes of a third minor medal were ruined by a sparkling Tipperary performance.

It was chalked down as another pale day for the Tribesmen in Croke Park and perhaps it tipped the balance towards Ger Loughnane being courted and later signed up as the man to lead Galway back to glory.

RTE's loss was hurling's gain, for the Clare man's decision to return to the game electrified the post-championship winter and with Babs Keating warming to the task facing Tipperary and Justin McCarthy returning to continue his loyal and brilliant work with Waterford, the hurling year closed promising plenty of sparks next year.

With Kilkenny setting the example.

Kilkenny's Path to the Title

Leinster Semi-final

June 10th Kilkenny 1-23 Westmeath 1-9 ... Cusack Park

Leinster Final

July 2nd Kilkenny 1-23 Wexford 2-12 ... Croke Park

All-Ireland Quarter-final

July 22nd Kilkenny 2-22 Galway 3-14 ... Semple Stadium

All-Ireland Semi-final

August 13th Kilkenny 2-21 Clare 1-16 ... Croke Park

All-Ireland Final

September 3rd Kilkenny 1-16 Cork 1-13 ... Croke Park