Brian Cody was never going to bite on a question related to his personal duel with Henry Shefflin but his curt response was telling enough as it will continue to be the number one storyline he gets asked about in the lead-up to the Leinster final on June 4.
The legendary Cats manager will get the chance to re-establish himself as the master over his most famous pupil despite them closing out their round-robin campaign with a first-ever Championship loss at Nowlan Park to Wexford.
However, when asked post-match if there was any extra sense of meaning around their next fixture due to a fellow Kilkenny icon being over them he bluntly stated: "Well we're playing Galway, that's the way we're looking at it."
The first match-up between the two was largely overshadowed by the pair's icy handshake at full-time but it was a tight affair with Kilkenny almost pulling off a vintage comeback only to be beaten by a point through Conor Conney's late free.
However, The Tribesmen will likely go into this provincial decider as almost everyone's pick since they have remained unbeaten through the round-robin while The Cats went out on a real low yesterday.
They were out-fought as well as out-hurled although admittedly the Model County had a bit more on the line as they knew going in that they had to come away with a win in order to have any chance of progressing through to the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
They had some heroic displays with Lee Chin’s leadership and accuracy chief amongst them - he hit nine points from 10 shots.
But Darragh Egan will be most pleased by the huge impact his bench made in the final 15 minutes.
Cathal Dunbar, Mikie Dwyer and Conal Flood all scored points, while Charlie McGuckin had a hand in two scores inside three minutes of his introduction on 62 minutes.
Galway’s victory over Dublin at Salthill meant that Wexford, Kilkenny and Dublin all finished on six points, with the capital side’s inferior scoring difference seeing them exit the Championship.
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