Derek Lyng may be stepping into Brian Cody’s shoes but he’s determined to walk his own path.
It’s now six months since Lyng formally succeeded the 11-time All-Ireland winning manager but his reign has been fairly low-key so far, something that’s about to change with Tipperary coming to UPMC Nowlan Park in the second round of the Allianz League on Sunday.
Kilkenny are now into an eighth year without an All-Ireland and whether or not he can bridge the gap to 2015 is, ultimately, what his term in charge will be judged on, the relative famine bringing an extra burden on top of replacing the most successful manager in GAA history.
To that end, might he have been better off allowing someone else to pick up the mantle from Cody before putting his hand up when the job came around again?
“No, didn’t enter into my mind at all, that doesn’t bother me,” he insisted. “Like, I don’t wake up every day comparing myself to anybody else to be honest.
“I’m privileged to get the job but I’m determined to just get working on it and put my own stamp on it. The expectations are always there with Kilkenny, that’s to be as successful as you can possibly be, winning All-Irelands, that’s no different for me. That’s fine. I have no issue with that.”
He added: "If you try to compare yourself to him or try to look at it from that perspective, I don't think I would have went for the job, to be honest. I don't see it like that at all.
“Once I feel that we're maximising the potential of the team and that we're working really hard as a group, that's my expectation. Whatever happens after that, happens.”
Lyng prepared himself as diligently for this job as could reasonably be expected. Having served six seasons as a Cody selector, he stepped aside and took on the county’s under-20 team, leading them to last year’s All-Ireland title.
“I think there was a curiosity or I had an ambition to manage at some point myself and I was very grateful for the opportunity to go into the senior set up at that point because I was still relatively young and had only finished club hurling at the time. And getting the opportunity to work with Brian, Mick Dempsey and James McGarry, it was a super opportunity.
“But then as time moves on you can’t stay forever there and for myself I always had that ambition that I would like to go and manage, be it at club level, it wasn’t necessarily at county level, and the opportunity with the under-20s came up and I was happy to take it.
“And when you take a job then you focus on that and you want to do the best you can and I suppose that’s where the opportunity came then for the senior.”
Lyng was the most obvious successor to Cody when the job came up as Henry Shefflin was already ensconced in Galway and while, in theory, he could have changed horses, it’s not something that typically happens at inter-county level.
Bar they meet in the League final or semi-final, Lyng won’t share a sideline with his former Kilkenny teammate until he brings his Galway side to Nowlan Park in the Leinster Championship on April 30.
"It will be different,” Lyng acknowledges. “To be honest, the only thing I'll be concerned about is having the team ready to play Galway. That's enough of a concern. It doesn't really bother me who's on the line, to be honest.”
Lyng’s hand was weakened before he took charge of a single training session with the news that Conor Browne, James Maher, Michael Carey and Richie Leahy were opting out for this season, while Ballyhale’s Brian Cody will not be back on board this year despite returning from injury recently as he has left for Australia.
“Ideally you'd like to have everybody but fellas have personal decisions to make and travelling is obviously something that was important to them.
“I would never try to talk somebody out of it either if that's what you want to do, that's no problem. For me then it's about the opportunity it affords other players.
“And we have plenty of hurlers in Kilkenny who would give anything to be in here and to be on the panel, and that's what we're looking for as well. So it's ok, we have plenty of fellas to pick from.”
One who starred for Lyng’s under-20s last year, Billy Drennan, is already catching the eye having hit 0-9 and 2-4 against Offaly and Laois respectively in the Walsh Cup before slotting 1-8 in his League debut against Antrim last Saturday.
“He has started well but I wouldn't be putting a huge expectation on Billy yet,” Lyng cautioned. “I think he's only turning 20 this year so it's early doors, but he's a good fella. He's training really well.
“We have a lot of the under-20s in with us at the minute. As the year goes on, we'll see how that progresses. We have a competitive panel and it's good to see some of the younger players putting their hands up already. That's what we want."
READ NEXT:
Honeysuckle Cheltenham Festival call made following Irish Champion Hurdle second
Christian Atsu found alive after being 'trapped' in rubble after earthquake
Rory McIlroy mocks LIV rebels Patrick Reed and Phil Mickelson in Netflix series
James McClean plays for Wigan hours after birth of baby daughter as wife Erin hilariously reacts
Manchester City charged with numerous breaches of financial rules by Premier League
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
