Brian Cody was never one for hot takes.
During his 24 years as the most successful inter-county manager ever seen, it was rare to hear him air a radical opinion, red cards (not a fan generally) aside. The Kilkenny bainisteoir left it to others to do the jaw jaw; his idea of blue sky seemingly only the bit between the goalposts.
It's a little ironic then that he is now a member of the GAA's Hurling Development Committee. Though its main remit is to promote the spread of hurling, the sport he made his life's work, it will also be a forum to discuss potential structure and rule changes. Cody still has that aura. When he speaks you listen.
"You can always think there’s scope for improvement in everything. Whatever situations are put in front of us, we’ll have a chat about them."
Is a plague of thrown hand-passes one of them?
"It’s an issue that’s there, for certain," he says. "I think that what happens now, unfortunately, is that there is so much talk about it and so much pressure on referees, that they are almost looking for an opportunity to give a free.
"When it is shown back then, maybe it transpires that actually it was a decent pass. That’s tough too."
He is lukewarm on the experiment of players striking the sliotar with the other hand or hurl instead, which was trialled in college games late last year.
"I’m not sure you need to go that far. Hand-passing has always been an integral part of the game. It’s a vital skill.
"It has certainly changed over the years, from the point of whether they are definitely hand-passes or not, but I don’t think penalising the player with the ball too much is a solution to it either."
Though fundamental changes could be in store for Gaelic football, Cody insists he hasn’t "put any thought" into whether hurling should adopt similar proposals, such as four points for a goal or 'overtime showdowns'. But three years into the split-season, he can see the merit of a slightly longer inter-county campaign.
"It is short, for sure. Short and snappy. A fella could get a fairly basic injury, roll an ankle or a hamstring, and miss three or four games. That could put an end to a fella’s championship for that year and that’s hugely disappointing obviously. I’m really conscious of the injury situation for players because they put all the training in and they work so hard.
"July is really really early to have it over. It’s a big change for the people who were always so used to September. But the split-season has panned out like that.
"Certainly people need to sit down and discuss it, look at potential tweaks that can be done to it. Not a wholesale change but it can be tweaked here and there."
He sheds not tears for the passing of the pre-season competitions.
"I don’t think it’s going to be something major for anybody really. It was always an opportunity to give players that a manager might be thinking about an opportunity.
"A lot of players’ careers probably started with the Walsh Cup and that’s not there for them now. But whatever happens instead of it will go ahead and it won’t make the demands on players much less."
Two years on from his last game in charge of the Cats - the 2022 All-Ireland final defeat to Limerick - Cody insists he’s not wistful for the inter-county sideline or dwelling on his considerable achievements.
"If I was going to miss it, I would have maybe tried to stay doing it"
"I didn’t hit a ball in any of those matches, the players won whatever they won" he observes with typical bluntness.
"I don’t miss being involved to be honest. Of course, I enjoyed it but the game goes ahead and I am not involved in it now. If I was going to miss it, I would have maybe tried to stay doing it but I think you move on and that’s it really.
"I never went away too far from the club [James Stephens] anyway. I am involved with the club and that keeps a fella going same as everything else.
"I never felt it a huge burden when I was doing it. Life just goes ahead really. I’m a top-class golfer now!"
Why did he finally call it a day?
"Check my birth cert maybe!" jokes the 70-year-old. "It wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction after a match. I was never going to announce it but my mind was pretty much made up.
"I was enjoying it but I didn’t own the job. An opportunity was there for someone else to come in and take it on. So it was just a natural evolution of what happens. I suppose I spent longer there than most people."
That someone is Derek Lyng, who led Kilkenny back to the final in 2023 before they were beaten in the last four this year. If Liam MacCarthy stays a stranger next year, that would equal the county’s record drought (ten years) since their first victory in 1904.
"You never look on that," insists Cody. "You look at 'Are you being competitive? How are you playing?’. You could go through the other strong hurling counties and start counting years as well. Kilkenny are not alone. It’s hard to win these things.
"Since Derek came in, we have been very competitive. They were barely beaten by Clare this year, who went on to win the All-Ireland final. Won a league and two Leinster finals as well. We are doing very well and that’s what we get on with. It’s easy to say you want to be successful, but to be successful you have to be competitive, and we are."
The brief of the committee Cody now serves on is to enhance the promotion and growth of hurling nationally, while GAA president Jarlath Burns wants to see more counties contending for top honours by 2034. Is that a realistic aim?
"I think he is talking about that in maybe 20 years time," says Cody. "He’s made no secret of the fact that this is a long-term project. We are there for three years and we are not going to see anything remotely like that in three years’ time. If we can put some structures in place and see start up of new clubs and see progress in counties that really have been crying out for progress, that's as much as we can hope to be able to see. Whatever we do, it’s possible for the next group of people to continue to progress it.
"One of the big things has been the advent of the other competitions. The Nickey Rackard, Christy Ring, Lory Meagher, have been very good competitions.
"Counties beforehand, there was no point in some of them trying to take part in the Liam MacCarthy Cup because they wouldn’t have been realistically capable of doing it. They are competing at their own level with the opportunity for promotion and such so that has made a difference.
"That is there but so much work is needed to be done. Hurling is struggling in certain areas for sure and that’s what I suppose this committee is all about really, trying to improve things.
"It’s spreading the game of hurling, the love of hurling and giving the opportunity to all the people in the country, and particularly the young children in the country, the chance to play hurling.
"In all these counties where hurling is not prominent, there are people from strong hurling counties living there now. That can be a starting kick for the whole thing and for more people to get involved and that is where the committee is very important to give the support to them."
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