Nine years without an All-Ireland title might not be a problem for a lot of counties, but when you've won more in your code than anyone else as Kilkenny have managed, it's tantamount to a catastrophe.
Kilkenny's most recent senior hurling championship came in 2015, the last of Brian Cody’s 11 titles. Despite four visits to the final since, their wait for a 37th crown goes on.
Anyone expecting panic around Nowlan Park will be left waiting. The Black and Amber captain for 2023, Eoin Cody, picked up his first All-Star gong earlier this month and, nice and all as that was, he’s confident his team-mates know exactly what’s required of them heading into 2024.
"If there was only one player out on the pitch, the goal in Kilkenny will always be to win an All-Ireland," Cody told RTÉ Sport.
"If that’s not your goal as a Kilkenny man, there’s no point in going out playing. You hurl to win and in Kilkenny we hurl to win All-Irelands.
"It hasn’t happened since 2015, but the hunger and work ethic is as strong as ever. We fully believe in ourselves and we fully know we’re capable of doing it. There’s challenges along the way.
"In hurling, on any given day, there’s a winner and a loser but we’ll do all we can to be on the winning side and we’ll take it game by game again this year."
In the nine years since beating Galway by four points in that 2015 decider, the Cats panel has taken on a progressively more youthful look as one stalwart after the next hung up his hurl - although TJ Reid, scorer of 1-07 against the Tribe nine years ago, continues to defy age and conventional wisdom by performing as unerringly as ever in his 37th year.
While the current panel are high on vigour, enthusiasm and fresh legs, they’re low on one key ingredient that Brian Cody’s panels thrived on: All-Ireland-winning experience. Derek Lyng took them to the final in his first season this year, a nine-point losing effort to the Limerick juggernaut. Brian Cody’s final campaign ended at the hands of the same opposition.
Ballyhale forward Eoin, however, knows hunger often provides the best sauce. "No one puts pressure on us, only ourselves," he said.
"You want to win, that pressure is in the camp… the team is mostly lads who haven’t won All-Irelands now. We want to have that feeling. The teams we all watched growing up, we want to replicate that. But there’s a lot of good teams around and one team in particular [Limerick] are going to be there or thereabouts this year, as they are every year."
Of his maiden All-Star award, Cody is conscious to keep it in the proper perspective. In Kilkenny they count Celtic Crosses, not individual honours. But the 23-year-old knows the recognition is a welcome sign of a still fledgling career trending in the right direction.
"It was nice to get one. It wasn’t the main goal for the year, that was up the steps of the Hogan Stand. It didn’t work out unfortunately, but it was great to be rewarded with a place on the All-Star team."
His first year as captain of the side coincided with Lyng’s first in the hotseat. At just 22, Cody chose to be the kind of skipper that leads by example. No need for 10 words when three will do. "I enjoyed it," he said. "It’s a huge honour and a privilege and be captain and to be recognised by your club as the captain of the county… in terms of speaking up, not really, to be honest.
"I try to do it on the pitch. I’m around long enough now to know you don’t do it with your mouth, you do it with your hurl and your actions on the pitch."
Wintertime in GAA circles generally means much discussion about the playing calendar and future of the association’s various competitions. On the chopping block this time around are the various pre-season competitions that produce some January fare for match-starved supporters as well as lightly raced footballers and hurlers alike.
If the Gaelic Players Association have their way, these competitions will soon be no more. Cody, for his part, would like to see them retained.
"I’m not against those competitions, I don’t think they should be got rid of," he said. "It gives the management a great chance to see new players. I wouldn’t be mad for experienced players or lads with lots of championship games under their belts. It should be for management to trial out things.
"Management should use it for that aspect of getting to know their players and trying out new players and stuff like that. It’s important that players who are called in on trial get a game. Some of them might not even make it to the league. So even if they get a game in the O’Byrne Cup or the Walsh Cup, at least they get that chance to show themselves."
Like most of his countymen, Cody appears to abide by the rule that 'more trumps less’ when it comes to the playing of games. Hence, the recent GAA dictum that could see smaller counties dropped from National League competition makes little sense to him.
"I don’t think it’s really a development, I’d see it as the opposite," Cody said. "In order to promote these counties, they need to be hurling more not less. It’s not the easiest thing to do. Hurling is a difficult sport, particularly if you’re not born into it with a hurl in your hand."
AIB, proud partner of the GOAL Mile, has teamed up with Kilkenny hurling captain Eoin Cody and former Tyrone footballer, Seán Cavanagh to encourage communities in Ireland to 'Step Up Together' and take part in the GOAL Mile this Christmas.
