RTE pundit Shane Dowling labelled Brian Cody's body language towards Henry Shefflin as 'disappointing' while acknowledging everyone might be over-analysing it a tad bit.
The former Limerick star was, like many viewers, taken aback by what seemed a surprisingly tense handshake at full-time.
He said: “If you read the body language, it looks disappointing if you ask me.
“Two legends of the game, and if I wasn’t here tonight, I was going straight to Salthill to watch these two legends of the game for that reason alone.
“You can see the stare from Brian Cody and Henry is nearly looking back at him as if he is disappointed. Maybe we’re overthinking it, but Henry has had a fairly hard time of it over the last couple of weeks (referring to his brother's tragic death).
“Considering what those two have been through together it looked disappointing. But maybe we’re overthinking it.”
Plenty of commentators, however, have expressed the view that Cody was likely just still in a foul mood over how the game ended.
With the score tied with seconds to play, Paddy Deegan was penalised for being overly aggressive while going for a high ball.
Conor Cooney pointed the ensuing free and The Tribesmen left Salthill the victors having staved off a vintage Kilkenny comeback by 1-24 to 3-17.
Both Cody and Shefflin later played down the incident and insisted there was no tension present.
Shefflin said: “I didn’t notice any tension. I shook hands. For me, I suppose there’s a lot of different emotions. The handshake happened, I didn’t see anything in it.
“After last weekend against Westmeath the attention turned straight away to the Kilkenny game and that’s it. It’s done now. We can sit back and relax tonight and think of Laois then next.
“It was a unique opportunity me coming up here but today was a unique occasion. That’s it, it’s done. I’m glad that really hurling and what went on on the pitch was the best thing about today.”
While Cody added: “I have no idea what’s tense about anything to do with anybody else, because whenever we play a match as long as I’m involved with it, it’s got absolutely nothing to do with who’s in charge of any team.
“It’s got everything to do with who is on the pitch. The Kilkenny players were out there representing Kilkenny today, and I’d be very happy with the way they represented Kilkenny.”
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