‘The Warrior’s Code’ didn’t leave anything out.
Jackie Tyrrell’s autobiography, released in September of last year, is a searingly honest, all-encompassing and open look at the life of a Kilkenny hurler on the most successful team in history.
Hurling folk have, for the last while been obsessed with the Kilkenny way of doing things. With 11 Liam MacCarthys going the way of the county since the turn of the decade, why wouldn’t we have been?
What drove this obsession was the intrigue and aura that always surrounded Brian Cody’s team. The Cats went about their business quietly, there were never any murmurs from the camp. Never any glimpses into their way of doing things.
We wondered how they came back hungry for more winning year after winning year. We wondered how they kept so business-like.
Seeing as we never really had a clue what was going on behind the doors of those legendary Nowlan Park training sessions, the mystique deepened, we let our imaginations run riot.
That great Kilkenny team has reached the end. With the retirements of the likes of Tyrrell, Richie Power, Henry Shefflin, Eoin Larkin, Eddie Brennan, Tommy Walsh and Brian Hogan – Brian Cody now faces a new challenge, Kilkenny now face a new challenge.
After disappointing years in 2016 and 2017, The challenge is to integrate an influx of young and fresh faces around their experienced campaigners, TJ Reid, Conor Fogarty, Paul Murphy, Colin Fennelly, Cillian Buckley and Richie Hogan and so on.
Jackie Tyrrell provided us with the insight we were so desperately craving on the camp these youngsters are going into. The James Stephen’s club man didn’t take a backward step in an honest, straight talking account of how they did things.
He told us about the “typical” Nowlan training sessions, “raw and sparky,” he said where he “was on edge like a powderkeg ready to explode.”
Delighted to announce my Book #TheWarrior'sCode is out on the 7th of September & available to pre-order from @easons https://t.co/wIakoHmMxO pic.twitter.com/mzVh0gziur
— Jackie Tyrrell (@MrJackieTee) August 1, 2017
One of the most notable aspects of the book was his portrayal of Brian Cody. Tyrrell always had a huge respect for his club-man, but like many manager-player relationships, it was strictly business only.
Tyrrell spoke of being crippled by a lack of feedback or encouragement from Brian Cody, it was “head-wrecking,” he said.
“Nothing filters back to the players…You have no idea where you stand.”
Rare as it was to get an insight in to Brian Cody’s methods, Tyrrell’s description created plenty of debate in the hurling world.
We asked Michael Fennelly about his views on that image of Cody.
Despite not having had the chance to read the book yet, the Ballyhale Shamrocks man could see where Tyrrell was coming from, especially during his younger days on the panel, when he was trying to make that breakthrough.
“Every player has their own opinion, I suppose, on it. I’m quite different in that over the last six or seven years I had those injuries so I would have been talking to him on a regular basis on how my body is and how I’m getting on in training and how the rehab is coming and when I’d be back,” he said at the Peptalk All-Ireland Games Initiative Launch.
A legend of the game. A legend of Kilkenny. https://t.co/A8g1GrBDDM
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) January 11, 2018
“I always had a strong relationship with him and the communication channels were always open. But I can see maybe in my younger days that I would have liked a bit more feedback.
“I suppose you have 30 players there and players rolling in and out as well and it’s very hard to get to all of those players as well.
“I think every manager and every coach is going to have strenghts and weaknesses and Brian was no different, he’s not perfect.
“And different players will think different things. Some player might not want to go near him at all, as well. If you’re not going well in training, I suppose it would be nice to hear what can you do to try to make that better or what you can focus on.
Worth a debate https://t.co/L49sYxLHGk
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) January 11, 2018
“That definitely for me is important. Sometimes you can end up talking too much to players as well. And they’re getting so flustered with how they’re performing and maybe a bit of time off or stepping away from it might be a good thing too.
“So different scenarios require different approaches, I suppose that’s the key things there,” he said.
Fennelly is Cody’s second cousin, and while admitting they were not close in that family sense, he always appreciated how Cody looked out for him given his injuries.
“Yeah he’s related. Look I’ll be honest we wouldn’t be close in terms of relations at all. Not whatsoever. Donncha would be similar age to me, his son. We would have competed at a younger age, maybe played together at U14, U16 and stuff. But in terms of cousins, we wouldn’t be close at all funnily enough in that side of things.
But obviously over the last six, seven, eight years in particular we would have got quite close in terms of my injuries. He could have easily said to me that ‘Look you’re not right, you’ve an injury there, it’s a distraction maybe, frustrating’. But always kept with me. I really appreciated that,” he added.
Michael Fennelly was at the launch of Peptalk’s All Ireland Games, an intercompany wellbeing challenge that allows companies all over Ireland to compete against each other. To get your company signed up check out http://www.peptalk.ie/all-ireland-games.
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