Cody calls for August All-Ireland final date
KILKENNY manager Brian Cody has called on the GAA to condense the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship and move the final forward to August in a bid to help the plight of the club player. Fresh from masterminding an 11th title in his 17th season in charge, Cody called for radical change to be implemented, including switching the traditional showpiece final away from September. ‘The All-Ireland Championship has to be condensed into a shorter period of time in some way,’ he said. ‘Club and intercounty hurling, the mix is not right. The mix is not right. The people who have the ability and have the responsibility to deal with this thing can’t just keep forgetting about it. They need to look at it,’ added the Kilkenny boss. Asked if he would be in favour of bringing the final forward to August, to allow the club scene more time to play off its championships, he replied: ‘absolutely’, suggesting it would be ‘no problem at all’ to play it in early August. ‘Look, I’m not going to come up with a solution, I don’t have a solution,’ said Cody. ‘But what I do know is this — the mix with club and inter-county
is not as it needs to be. Club players are suffering, and inter- county players are club players,’ said the Cats manager.
‘There’s 34 different lads on our panel and different players coming in and out as needs be. But they are all club players, every Galway player there is a club player. The game is about club, club, club and it has to be. The mix is wrong is all I can say about it,’ added Cody.
While the Kilkenny boss claimed the game is in a very good place overall, he feels the GAA need to make further i mprovements from a position of strength.
‘It’s not enough just to leave things as it is. The time to change in everything you do is when you are going really well and t hings are good and strong.
‘Yesterday’s match was a great game, the previous semi- f i nal was a great game, last year’s All- Ireland f i nals were great games. That’s the time to see what can we do better. The whole club thing… everyone is crying out for it.’
Cody’s comments come not long after last year’s Hurler of the Year Richie Hogan revealed that he ‘hates’ the Championship structure due to its limited number of games.
Kilkenny needed j ust four games to defend this year’s title.
‘ He doesn’t hate the Championship,’ explained Cody. ‘He is not a fan of the way it is structured is what he is saying. We all love the Championship.
‘ I would l i ke to see change, definitely, too, there’s no doubt about that,’ said the Cats boss. ‘It’s a bigger issue. To me, central to the whole thing has to be the club situation. Richie would love to get more Championship hurling, of course he would. Club players would love to get more club hurling in the summer.
‘We are here today and Galway are over in their place today and everybody has to go and play club matches next weekend. That’s where our hearts are, but it’s tough going.
‘Then playing the following weekend and the whole thing will be run off now. And the Kilkenny set-up is decent compared to a lot of counties, I would expect.’
Cody explained that Kilkenny’s injury crisis over the course of the summer was the biggest threat to the county’s hopes — more than their list of high-profile retirements.
‘The retirements were never a factor. The injuries became a factor for sure.
‘ You think of Richie Power. He played 10 minutes of hurling this year, and that’s how good he is. And Jackie Tyrrell then.
‘Michael Fennelly, how he comes up with performances like that, in a semifinal and final, beggars everything that is supposed to be part and parcel of what we’re doing.
‘ Then Richie Hogan. How he played the semifinal we’re still wondering, and how he got into the field yesterday is nuts as well, because he’d a grade-two tear in his quad muscle, two weeks ago.
‘And Eoi n Larkin, cracked thumb, in a cast until last Tuesday. And these lads just said, “we’d be grand, we’ll be there,” and that’s what they did.’