Watching a video like this one just spells it out for you.
Becuase it’s right there in front of you. Many moons ago, Brian Cody gave a coaching talk at St Kieran’s College in Kilkenny and, having been asked some probing questions by his audience, Cody gave some of the most masterful and insightful answers you could imagine.
And the mastery is in the simplicity. After watching the clip, and having listened to it closely, you can understand there and then how he got the best out of those Kilkenny players for so long. And how, having retired on Saturday after 24 years at the helm as Kilkenny manager, he will go down as one of the greatest managers of all time, in any sport.
Cody is first of all asked about the ‘basics of defending’ and, having heard him out, it seems like a very, very simple game.
“No matter what you say about defending, it’s impossible to talk about defending without talking about the basics of defending,” said the James Stephen’s club-man.
“Take a puck-out scenario, if a wing back is just running across the field chasing his man, that’s not going to stop the ball. The basics of defending is stopping the ball, not letting the ball go through you. Almost always, if a half back is under a puck-out and he doesn’t stop it, it’s almost a guarantee that a forward will come in behind and score.
Farewell to the greatest ever. pic.twitter.com/G1zPzM6zf8
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) July 23, 2022
“So a fella playing half back must stop the ball. That’s the first and foremost job he has to do. He can decorate the game other ways if he’s able to later on, he might tap over a couple of points, but if he taps over a couple of points and doesn’t do the basics of stopping the ball, he shouldn’t be playing half back…Stop the ball, kill it. Move it forward, don’t let it go through. It should be in your head the whole time, ‘don’t let it go past me.'”
One of the next questions up was about speed. And what followed was Cody at his best.
“Speed is great if you have it, but it’s not a death sentence if you don’t.
“Speed is always spoken about as being the be-all and end-all, but I don’t go along with that too much myself.
“It’s a bonus, it’s a great bonus to have, but if you don’t have great speed, I don’t think that if you don’t have it, you can’t be a county hurler, I’m certain that you can be. Speed in your head is way more important than speed in your feet.
“If you have both, you’re blessed, but very few people have both. I’ve always heard it said, ‘if you’re running from A to B, you don’t start at A. The first three steps are in your head and you’re gone, gone, gone. Because if you get a yard on a fella, you’ve taken his ground.”
Watch the full clip below.
