Brian Cody paid tribute to his players following another All-Ireland title win at Croke Park on Sunday.
The Cats made it an incredible eleven Liam MacCarthy Cups in Cody’s 17 seasons in charge with a 1-22 to 1-18 win over Galway at Croke Park.
The most successful manager in the GAA was quick to deflect praise away from himself and instead shine the spotlight onto his players.
“It’s a whole coming together or a lot of things. I’m the manager and I work with terrific people, Mick (Dempsey), James (McGarry) , Derek (Lyng), the medical personnel - everyone plays such a huge part in it,” he explained.
“But at the end it’s always won on the pitch – it’s never won on the sideline.
“I often hear ‘it was won on the line’, but I have yet to see a match won on the line – every match is won between the two sidelines and players do that. It’s about players, their response and their ability to respond.”
Cody said it was the players, and not he, that set the tone in the Kilkenny dressing room at half-time when the Cats were three points down.
“The players demand very, very high standards of each other and themselves,” he said.
“They demanded that, and we all demanded that or ourselves, and half-time was about making sure that there was an absolute resolve to pick up our standards in all aspects of our play and I think the actions spoke for themselves.”
