Brian Cody was far from impressed with Dublin selector Greg Kennedy after he was at the centre of a 'bizarre' incident during Kilkenny's Leinster SHC opening round win at Nowlan Park last evening.

The former Galway defender intercepted a short free from TJ Reid while on the field giving instructions late in the first half, thus denying Kilkenny a goal-scoring opportunity. Cork referee Cathal McAllister ordered that the free be retaken, but Kennedy - much to Kilkenny's ire - escaped sanction.

“Well, I’d say even people who are longer involved in the game than I am haven’t seen it, so I certainly haven’t seen it before. I know Greg Kennedy played a fair bit at corner-back, but tonight it was a bizarre thing to do," the Kilkenny manager reflected in the Irish Independent.

“TJ could have tapped it over the bar obviously, but he was thinking ‘goal opportunity’ because it was a goal opportunity and that happened, so I wasn’t happy about it, no I wasn’t.”

Cody's opposite number Mattie Kenny claimed Kennedy didn't intercept the ball deliberately.

“I didn't see it but, look it, I know Greg a long, long time. I was just talking to him there; the whistle hadn't gone he was going off the field. The ball was coming over his head, he told me it was just kind of a reaction thing. 

“Greg is a real top-class sports guy. He's very competitive but one thing about him, he wouldn't do anything like that deliberately and he assured me it was just a reaction when the ball came over his head.”

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