Kilkenny boss Brian Cody still takes charge of the in-house matches in Nowlan Park.
“I’ve been a top-class referee for a long time so I can’t change now!”
Does he blow the whistle often? “Absolutely. If a foul is committed, it’s a free and that’s it.”
He always arrives to training well before time. “Probably an hour and a half to be honest. I’d always be there very early. That’s important. If you want to do the job properly, you have to be ready to do all those things. Standards have to be set and standards have to be maintained. If I’m careless or slovenly in any way about it then I shouldn’t be there.”
This is his 24th season in charge of the Cats. What’s the most enjoyable part about being Kilkenny manager? “Probably the training sessions to be honest about it. Just to see the players giving everything they possibly have for the purpose of improvement and gaining a place on the team. That’s very enjoyable. You judge all teams by their spirit and by their attitude. Every year, we’ve had that. We haven’t been successful every year but we’ve been competitive for a long, long time. That’s a great tribute to all the players I’ve dealt with.”
The challenge for Cody on Sunday is to stop Limerick completing three All Irelands in a row. “It’s massive. They’re the All Ireland champions for the past two years; they’re the best team in the country. They have all the ingredients. Their team work is massive, their belief in each other is massive, their experience, their skill, their physicality. They’re very much a team. They play for each other. They don’t work as individuals, they work really strongly as a team.”
Listen back to the full interview with Brian Cody from Friday's Lár Na Páirce.
