Kilkenny hurling manager Brian Cody has praised his charges after their comprehensive victory over Galway in the Allianz Hurling League Division 1A.
After a poor performance in their defeat to Cork last weekend, Cody has revealed that he wanted a response from his Cats, saying,“We were outhurled last Sunday in most aspects of the game, and we looked for a response from the players, and we got that. In fairness, we got a decent response.”
Cody also commented on Galway’s performance, expressing his surprise at their capitulation, “Now Galway will be very disappointed – it’s not to Galway form at all. And we’re not suggesting that we were very, very good today. But we were decent and we capitalised on a poor day for Galway. That’s the way it works.
“Galway hurlers have terrific skill and they know themselves this has been a bad day for them, and that will change very, very quickly.
“And sometimes it takes a display like that to get you back going strongly and I’m well aware of their potential strength, certainly in the Leinster championship.”
The Cats boss credited his team’s strong start as crucial to their victory.
“We played well, definitely. We got into the game early," he said. "We got a couple of good scores, got a couple of goals early, which is a big thing obviously. The last 20 minutes the game was just played out really. It was just a question of getting to the end of the game really.”
Richie Hogan was injured in a clash with the Galway goalkeeper and Cody believes he may now be suffering from a rib problem: "He was in serious pain going away from the pitch, definitely. It’s possibly a rib problem or something like that. Richie is a very, very important player and we’ll certainly be hoping that he’ll be fine.
“At the stage the game was at, a lot of players wouldn’t have even bothered to go and contest that ball. But Richie is playing really strong hurling at the moment. He’s hungry for the ball and he went for it, and unfortunately he’s picked up a serious injury.”
Cody also looked ahead to the league semi-finals, “We’re glad to be through the league semi-finals, it’s going to be a great match to be getting again. I think we’re going to be playing either Clare or Limerick now at this stage, and they’re probably teams we haven’t met an awful lot of over the last number of years, and they’re going to be a big challenge. We’re very much looking forward to it.”
