Following the closest thing to a shellacking Kilkenny have experienced in some time, Brian Cody is in no mood to acquiesce to the idea of Tipp have blazed a trail towards a new hurling order.
Speaking at the Citywest hotel, Kilkenny's base for the All-Ireland final, Cody remarked that "there are players on our panel who haven’t been seen yet who will be top players, and quickly. You can rest assured of that".
There have been hints of a slowing of the conveyor belt of talent in Kilkenny in recent years: their underage dominance has ceased (although they did win a minor All-Ireland in 2014) and this year's squad lacked the squad depth of years previous: a fact exacerbated by a dreadful run of injuries this year, most notably to Michael Fennelly and Ger Aylward.
The moment this lack of depth was exposed seemed to be last weekend. With the Kilkenny full-back line taken to the cleaners by Tipp's extraordinary full-forward line (John O'Dwyer, Seamus Callanan, and John McGrath) scored 2-21 between them, with Cody electing not to make any defensive changes.
Cody believes that an analysis that leaves culpability at the feet of his full-back line is unfair:
They won’t be scapegoated by us. I would hate to think that would happen.
That’s the simplest thing in the world to do. It would be very, very cheap sort of analysis if that’s (what is said). I haven’t heard a single piece of analysis about it, I don’t know what anyone thinks.
And at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what anyone thinks. I know what I think and that’s that we win together, we get beaten together, we attack together, we defend together and our full-back line have been heroic and were manful to the very end yesterday as well, as were all our players.
Cody was also slightly non-committal on his own future, saying that "I wouldn’t even begin to think about it" when asked on the topic.
You don't really think he would walk away following a defeat, do you?
[The 42]
