"I don't seem to be at a loose end," says Brian Cody, philosophising on the days in the life of the Kilkenny hurling manager, now 18 years in and still not counting. "I don't seem to be hanging around, 'What will I do today?' or whatever. I seem to have something to occupy myself most of the time."
Sunday marks his 15th All-Ireland hurling final, having won 11 and lost three, and if his retirement last year from his other job as a school principal has somehow made the sense of anticipation more or less, then Cody certainly isn’t showing it.
“Obviously, around this time, what we’re involved with in the hurling, it takes up a certain level of time and that,” he says. “But it always was anyway. I always had July and August kind of free anyway, so that’s part and parcel of it and, you know, it hasn’t changed much.”
The now-perennial question of what keeps him going – or rather, coming back for more – is addressed with similar restraint: the more things change, the more Cody stays the same, and perhaps that’s the only reason he keeps on keeping on.
“Lookit, it’s not stressful,” he says. “People can say, ‘It’s easy to say that’. I don’t have to do this, like. This is not something that I have to do or stay doing; whatever it is, it’s my choice. If I choose to do something with my life that’s going to be a terrible sort of negative thing for me, or stressful thing for me, I wouldn’t be very clever, and I’m not that stupid.
“So I do it because I enjoy doing it and to be involved at this level at this part of the year coming up to the All-Ireland final, it’s a grand thing to be involved with. We’ll carry on and I’ll be involved in my club as well. It’s my sport and the sport I’m involved with, but I just carry on as normal.”
Still, something about the way Cody reacted to their semi-final replay win over Waterford suggested he may well be enjoying the role now more than ever.
“The reason I was satisfied was because we had just won an epic battle and the prize was, I kept saying it the whole time, there was no trophy but a massive prize: we’re in the All-Ireland final. That’s satisfying,” he says. “We had to play really, really well to win that game because our opposition played really, really well. The feeling at the end then. at the final whistle, it’s one way or the other, and that night was satisfying.”
Old rivals, new challenge
Sunday presents a fresh challenge again, a meeting with old rivals Tipperary, under new manager
Michael Ryan
. Does he see it that way: a new Tipp team that, unlike in more recent years, will feel they now have what it takes to beat Kilkenny?
“I don’t know because they have been brilliant for a long number of years now,” he says. “Again, what do you see when you see Tipperary? You just see brilliant hurlers. There’s some different personnel in there than there had been for a few years. Some great players they had have gone as well, but the skill level is serious. They have everything that’s required in a team.
“Michael Ryan obviously brings his own stamp on a team. What is that? He knows, they know, we’re not privy to what goes on in there. How good are they? They’re excellent, I’d say.”
Ryan recently called Kilkenny the “masters of intensity” and Cody reacts with interest: define intensity, he asks, before the question is thrown right back at him.
“It’s like people speak about intensity as if it’s something negative about it,” he says. “It’s a hugely positive thing. It’s probably what allows you to express yourself as a hurler. In terms of intensity, all you expect is that everybody gives everything they have really. You give yourself to the team, essentially, is what you do. That’s the requirement, because it’s a team sport and the same holds true for all sport. If a player is going out just to play his own game and try and do things that’ll make him look good, that’s not going to get you anywhere. No real team player does that, so it’s a question of everybody contributing to the team, and you can contribute in different ways.
“Intensity is just trying to dominate your position. Then there’s parts of the game, for certain, where you’re under pressure and you’re hanging in there and you have to have those levels again that will allow you to hang in. What you do in those situations are crucially important, as well just to even survive there. It’s a combination of lots of things.”
None of which, Cody says, comes from anything said or done on the sideline: “Take the drawn game against Waterford. Nothing happened off the pitch to make that happen. Our players just showed that composure, that never-say-die spirit, that determination to keep going and to have – more than anything else, I think – the composure to create the opportunity to score the goal that was required. That looked very difficult to do, it was something that was done by the players. Trusting the players to do that is a great thing to be able to have.
“But it’s in the past, it’s done and dusted. Does it have any influence on what will happen the next day? Absolutely not. If you like, you can say it gives them greater drive. I don’t think it does, because the drive to win an All-Ireland final is there anyway.”
The Brian Cody file: As Kilkenny manager
1999: All-Ireland finalists; Leinster champions
2000: All-Ireland champions; Leinster champions
2001: Leinster champions
2002: All-Ireland champions; NHL champions; Leinster champions
2003: All-Ireland champions; NHL Champions; Leinster champions
2004: All-Ireland finalists
2005: NHL champions; Leinster champions; Walsh Cup winners
2006: All-Ireland champions; NHL champions; Leinster champions; Walsh Cup winners
2007: All-Ireland champions; Leinster champions; Walsh Cup winners
2008: All-Ireland champions; Leinster champions
2009: All-Ireland champions, NHL champions; Leinster champions; Walsh Cup winners
2010: All-Ireland finalists; Leinster champions
2011: All-Ireland champions; Leinster Champions
2012: All-Ireland champions; NHL champions; Leinster finalists; Walsh Cup winners
2013: NHL champions
2014: All-Ireland champions; NHL champions; Leinster Champions Walsh Cup winners
2015: All-Ireland champions; Leinster champions
2016: Leinster Champions
Kilkenny successes under Cody: 11 All-Ireland Titles; 15 Leinster titles; 8 NHL titles
