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Hurling

Brian Cody looks back at his 21-year-old self

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody has seen and done it all exponentially over the years. But how would ...



Brian Cody looks back at his 2...
Hurling

Brian Cody looks back at his 21-year-old self

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody has seen and done it all exponentially over the years.

But how would his 21-year-old self have envisaged his hurling career developing over the decades?

Our own Maire Treasa Ni Cheallaigh had a 44-year-old photo and Q&A to help stir his memory.

In that Q&A, the 21-year-old Brian Cody had only dreamed of winning a National League for Kilkenny as a player. It's fair to say, he's over-achieved and more as a manager.

"You're 21 at the time and it was lucky that we had won the All-Ireland final," he said.

"I'm not much different"

"So I hadn't won a National League and I wanted to win one of them as well.

"We had those opportunities thanks be to God. But I'm not much different [now] in the fact that I wanted to just play hurling and play with my club and county and try and be successful."

"Thanks be to God, I tasted a bit of that as well and I'm still not doing much different to be honest."

You can watch the full Brian Cody interview below:

Cody has led Kilkenny to 11 All-Ireland titles as manager, as well as 15 Leinsters and nine National Leagues. An unprecedented haul - not that he saw such levels of success coming!

"Not a chance did I see this coming. It never occurred to me that I would even be managing Kilkenny in the slightest," he admitted.

"I was involved with my club but managing Kilkenny never entered my mind... until eventually it did!"

And as he added, "the years seem to ramble on, one into the other".

"And I find myself still doing it," he continued.

Kojak, Telly Savalas, Brian Cody American actor Telly Savalas - television detective Theo Kojak - at Heathrow Airport when he left for Los Angeles in 1976.

"I don't feel any different and the years flew by. It's great to have that opportunity to be able to do it."

Cody was coyer however on a more contentious subject: Whether his 21-year-old self was speaking the truth about Kojak being the best TV show on the telly.

"Like I still deal with all these reporters, I just make it up as I go along," he joked.

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