He’s just 21 years of age but there have already been a few watershed moments in Eoin Cody’s career.
Thankfully for him, Kilkenny and Ballyhale, they’ve all worked out for the better.
One was when he was very young and when he was looking up at his uncle Henry Shefflin, who was winning everything there was to win. To everyone else, Henry was the king but to Eoin Cody, he was still just his uncle.
And to this day, Cody will never forget the times when Henry used call to the house and ask him and his brother Brian to come to the field with him. Imagine the excitement as a youngster.
The boys would be collecting sliotars and hitting them back out as Henry honed his free-taking routine and even back then, even as just a chap, Cody was learning from the master.
“Henry used to practice frees, and he’d bring myself and my brother Brian over and my cousins to hit back out balls to him,” Cody told The GAA Hour.
“That was unbelievable and that’s probably a tradition that’s passed on now. Now you go off and hit your frees and you have your younger brothers and younger cousins hitting balls back to us.
“He didn’t stop until he didn’t miss any and you’d learn a lot from that, it was incredible to be watching him,” says the Ballyhale club-man.
"I loved it when I had the chance to play against him. I met him after and we had a talk a few jokes"@BallyhaleGAA's Eoin Cody on idolising his uncle Henry Shefflin, playing for him and eventually, as was the case this year, playing against him. pic.twitter.com/1aYH1U3j1h
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) August 29, 2022
Another moment he’ll never forget happened a few years later, when he was in secondary school in St Kieran’s College. By his own admission, Cody was never the first name on the team-sheet but he was still disappointed in fifth year, when he was dropped for their All-Ireland semi-final and final wins in 2018.
“I wasn’t the best coming up along. I was dropped for the All-Ireland semi-final and final when I was in fifth year. Looking back on it, I wasn’t happy about that, but it’s something I’ve used to make me stronger and better.”
By the following year, he was centre forward and scoring 0-8 in the All-Ireland final. Fast forward another year and he was the Young Hurler of the Year. He puts a lot of that down to all he’s learned at Kieran’s College.
“You go to school, throw the hurl under the desk. Then you’re out pucking at break, pucking between classes. You’re nearly doing an hour or two every day so that stands to you. The teachers nearly have to be out to kick lads back into class! As soon as there’s good weather, there’s lads making bee-lines outside!.”
Stop the lights that is some score. Eoin Cody with a piece of magic in Semple Stadium.pic.twitter.com/H5pDFkmIJF
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) January 23, 2022
It all came full circle this year when, as corner forward on the Kilkenny team, Cody was up against Galway, a team managed by Henry Shefflin.
“I stayed away from him there the week of the Galway match, I actually met him after alright and we had an auld talk and an auld sneer about it and a few jokes – that was after the first game and sure they won, so he was happy enough. I actually never met him after the Leinster final to rub it back in his face but they kept me scoreless in the Leinster final so I didn’t have much to say to him really.
“So, I stayed away from there. Ah no it was unreal though. Even to play against him was special, like it was nearly as special as being managed by him, it’s something different you know,” says Cody, who’s studying sports and business management in IT Carlow.
“It’s not something you experience every day but when I had the chance to play against him, I loved it, I thought it was unreal just to whatever, have a go against him and definitely, I enjoyed every second of it.”
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