Cody certain Cats will benefit from Shamrocks exit
AIB Goal Mile Launch with Eoin Cody and Sean Cavanagh 23/11/2023 Pictured is Kilkenny hurling Captain, Eoin Cody who has come on board as an AIB ambassador for this year’s GOAL mile. This year AIB and GOAL are calling on GAA clubs to ‘Step Up Together’ this festive season and host their own GOAL mile to raise funds to support vulnerable communities across the world. AIB is also offering people the chance to win €1,000 for their GAA club simply by registering for their GOAL Mile by visiting www.goalmile.org and also registering their club for the AIB GAA GOAL Mile competition at www.jotform.com/team/232784181278060/AIBGoalMileCompetition2023. Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Bryan Keane
All-Star Kilkenny attacker Eoin Cody believes there will be a silver lining to his relatively early end to the 2023 season with Ballyhale Shamrocks.
The reigning All-Ireland club hurling champions lost the Kilkenny final narrowly last month, ending their bid for the six-in-a-row and preventing them from defending their provincial crown.
In all, Shamrocks collected the last four Leinster titles and contested the last four All-Ireland finals too, meaning that Cats star Cody had little or no break before resuming inter-county activity each spring.
Cody, 23, who netted for Kilkenny in last July's All-Ireland final loss to Limerick, plans to use the rare winter break to his advantage and to come back a physically stronger player in 2024.
"It's my first time since being involved with Kilkenny that I have lost a (club) game in Kilkenny," said Cody at the launch of the AIB sponsored GOAL Mile. "Look, these things happen, no excuses or anything like that. Three or four weeks later, you're looking at the positives that I have a few months now to really put in a lot of hard work that I haven't got to do in previous years, to enhance my performance with the county team.
"For me, it will be different going into the pre-season this year. I'm back with Kilkenny three or four months earlier than I have been up to now. I'd usually be preparing for Kilkenny's league campaign, when I come back, so with the help of staff and management and dieticians I'll trust the process and do what they tell me.
"I'm looking forward to having a chance to do that extra bit of loading and to maybe getting a bit more physically fit in terms of muscle in the gym and the extra bit of fitness that could really play a huge role this year with the county.
"In terms of getting that heavy loading in the gym, and on the field, that's something that the guys have been doing for the last five years. I haven't had a chance to do it because of the club.
"When you're going straight into the county, you only have maybe two or three weeks to get the work in that the lads have been doing for three months. I'm hoping that there's going to be positive gains towards that for me this year, that the next three months can really help me this year going forward with the county."
Cody captained Kilkenny this year and lifted the Bob O'Keeffe Cup in June after their dramatic Leinster final win over Galway. O'Loughlin Gaels, who defeated Ballyhale in the county final and who are preparing for this Saturday's Leinster decider, will get to pick the Kilkenny captain for 2024. Defenders Huw Lawlor, Paddy Deegan and Mikey Butler will all be in the running to potentially succeed Cody. Dicksboro's Cillian Buckley is the last non-Ballyhale player to captain Kilkenny, in 2018.
"They're all big leaders," said Gaels trio Cody of Lawlor, Deegan and Butler. "It's up to the club who they pick. With Ballyhale, it was usually whoever was next in line in terms of Championship debut and it goes around then. It's up to the club really how they choose to pick it."
Whoever goes the nod will be tasked with getting their hands on the MacCarthy Cup ahead of a Limerick man. Kilkenny have come up short to the Shannonsiders in each of the last two finals. Cody admitted he has watched back this year's 0-30 to 2-15 final loss.
"I think at one stage we might have got a 65 and then Gearóid Hegarty got a point straight away," recalled Cody. "If we'd got the 65, and TJ I'm 100 percent sure would have put it over, that would have levelled the game maybe with eight or nine minutes to go.
"But that wind was strong too and they're a strong team and they were scoring all over the pitch and they just put us to bed in the last 10 minutes, there's not much we can do. They're a great team, we needed everything to go our way and unfortunately it didn't."
