Cody: No selection favouritism towards Shefflin

Kilkenny's veteran star Henry Shefflin may be hoping to land a 10th All Ireland winners medal on Saturday but manager Brian Cody insists there will be no favouritism when it comes to naming his team for the final replay against Tipperary at Croke Park.

Shefflin, an 11-time All Star, came off the bench for the last three minutes of the incredible 3-22 to 1-28 draw in the final nearly three weeks ago.

Cody, who has been at the Kilkenny helm since 1998, said any selection decisions will be based on the team rather than individuals.

Speaking to RTÉ Sport, Cody dismissed any thought of guaranteeing Shefflin or anyone else a shot at a winner's medal: "I've been doing this quite a while, I've always operated a panel system. The panel is hugely important.

"We would never have won anything without the strength of our panel and the trust that the panel has in each other, and the respect that's there between all the players on the panel.

"It will never be brought down to individuals or anything else, to me or to anybody else as an individual.

"That has been a great strength of ours and that will continue to be a great strength of ours."

Although quality was in abundance in the thrilling drawn game, Cody said he will still be looking for an improvement on his team's performance this weekend.

"You'll always look for improvement, every individual player himself will look for improvement because the reality of it is there's nobody perfect. You can always do things a bit better," said Cody.

"The quality of both teams was top class and there was some outstanding hurling done which will be difficult to improve on" - Brian Cody

"The quality of both teams was top class and there was some outstanding hurling done which will be difficult to improve on.

"Other aspects though there can be improvement."

Cody believed Tipperary's John O'Dwyer would score when he stepped up to take his last gasp free, but the Cats boss admitted he hadn't realised it would be the last play of the game that would've ultimately won Tipp the Liam McCarthy.

O'Dwyer was inches wide with the free from inside his own half, with Hawk-Eye called in amid dramatic scenes.

"I thought he'd [O'Dwyer] score it because he'd been hitting the ball brilliantly," said Cody. "He's a top class striker of the ball, a great long-range free taker and he hits them over the bar normally. I thought he'd score it.

"I also didn't realise it was the last puck of the game, so my thoughts simply were 'he's probably going to score this and we must go down the field and score a point to equalise it'. And that's what I was planning on doing."

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Cody: No selection favouritism towards Shefflin

Dengan url

http://olahragaenjoy.blogspot.com/2014/09/cody-no-selection-favouritism-towards.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Cody: No selection favouritism towards Shefflin

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Cody: No selection favouritism towards Shefflin

sebagai sumbernya

Olahraga Enjoy