Kilkenny and Cody still giving nothing away

KILKENNY'S BRIAN CODY:GAVIN CUMMISKEYswitches on his tape recorder and the big man says nothing new as eloquently as ever

THE KILKENNY press night has become a Monday night special on the GAA reporters’ calendar. That it starts at 9pm ensures a long trek home in the early hours. Best thing about it though is the gathering around Brian Cody at the end. Well, either that or the grub served up in Langtons hotel.

There was no access to training in Nowlan Park this year but the players seemed anxious to get the process up and running so we downed our cutlery and wandered into the new Set Theatre before the main course had arrived.

Think speed dating. Four or five journalists surround a hurler and pepper him with the same questions we asked 12 months previously. They duly supply similar answers.

This is no one’s fault. This group keep winning and very rarely step out of line. Developing a public persona is of little interest to them.

The hunger line is thrown out there. Yes, they remain as motivated as ever. The notorious Nowlan Park training ground battles are asked about. Yes, they continue to tear lumps out of each other on any given Tuesday night.

The backs in particular take a lot from this. If you can hold Eddie Brennan or Henry Shefflin no reason why Lar Corbett and Eoin Kelly cannot be stifled.

The Cody interview tends to wrap matters up. Calm and courteous in the face of maddening repetition, the man from The Village attempts to provide new and interesting answers to questions that have barely evolved since his managerial tenure began in 1999.

And so on that depressing thought the tape recorder is flicked to slow and the red button pressed . . . midway through house-keeping matters, the mind drifts. We got to thinking about the scenario Cody finds himself in: surrounded by young (ish) reporters must be so different to the circle he stood in a few hours earlier. This time his words are reactive. Then he was instructive. Then he was surrounded by talented, driven young men . . .

His big hurling hands occasionally slip behind his head, perhaps to exude a relaxed demeanour. There is a large lump on his left paw, almost like a sixth knuckle.

We are snapped back to reality by a question about this season’s scorelines and whether they indicate Kilkenny being drawn back into the pack.

“Pack?” he begins, taking any description of their superiority as an insult. “I’ve never seen us any way but in the pack, to be honest.

“There is a pack there of top hurling counties and we are one of them. Tipperary are one of them and there are another five or six there as well. There is nothing between any of us. On any given day any of us can beat the others.”

You have said that in the past but most people don’t see it like that. Does it frustrate that such a burden is constantly heaped upon the team? “It doesn’t really,” he chuckles. “It isn’t a burden in the slightest. I’m not even aware of that, to be honest.

“To me, decline or gaps or whatever it is doesn’t come into it. If we can win by one point it is a huge win, I think.”

Okay, we change direction by asking him about the motivational tools he uses with the players, citing Tyrone’s inability to fend off a hungrier, younger Cork team in the football semi-final.

“You could draw that analogy if you like. Mmm. I don’t know the answer to that. Tyrone are certainly, and have been over the last number of years, a very driven team. A team that plays with huge intensity. There comes a day when things just don’t happen for you. That’s sport.”

The motivation, he tells us, is about living in the present. Ignore the plaudits in equal measure to the criticisms.

“I would still think there is no question mark whatsoever over our hunger. Hunger won’t beat us. We will be as hungry as any other team out there.”

Eleven years on the line. He is asked about this. “I didn’t come in to do a particular number of years or a particular number of anything, to be honest. Turns out it is still going on and it is hard to imagine the number of years it is. That’s the way it has gone.”

Can you imagine life without it? “Ah look, life goes ahead. That’s the reality of it. I’m reasonably adjustable. Whatever happens I’ll be okay.”

Eventually we return to our main courses (a delicious Lamb shank and pint of Guinness) safe in the knowledge we have learned little more about Kilkenny hurling a year on except that they have the right man guiding them through this golden era. And that some day it will all be over.

Brian Cody

Born:1954

Club: James Stephens

Appointed:1999 to date

Managerial honours:All-Ireland SHC 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007. Leinster SHC 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009. National League 3 (2002, 2003, 2005)

Playing honours: All-Ireland SHC 1974, 1975, 1982 (captain), 1983. Leinster SHC 1974, 1975, 1978, 1982, 1983. All Stars 1975, 1982. All-Ireland club SHC 1976, 1982. NHL 1976, 1982, 1983.

Backroom team: Martin Fogarty (selector), Michael Dempsey (selector/trainer), Noel Richardson (physical trainer).