Brian Cody believes the GAA top brass are trying to take the physicality out of hurling.

Speaking to the media ahead of Sunday's Allianz Hurling League final against Cork, the Kilkenny manager expressed the fear that hurling is turning soft.

"I worry - for some mad reason everybody thinks this is madness - that the physicality of the game is being looked at in a negative way. It's just part and parcel of the game and always has been," he is quoted as saying in the Irish Examiner.

"Apart from these unfortunate cruciate injuries or natural injuries that can happen, there is no dirt in the game at all. But in my head I believe that they are trying to take genuine physicality out of the game.

"And I wish they would stop doing that. I'll be probably pilloried for this and that this is the type of game we want to play as we're looked on as this massively physical team. I don't see it that way at all, not in the slightest."

Cody also claimed that referees are being put under too much pressure with assessors watching their every move.

"I just think the referees have to be allowed to use their common sense. To use their interpretation of how the game should be played and the spirit of how the game should be played. They are being assessed out of the woods altogether.

"Referees are going out to do the very best job they can. They are going to make mistakes. I make several mistakes with regard to managing the Kilkenny team. The players I pick make mistakes as well, everybody does make honest, genuine mistakes. Referees are going to make genuine mistakes but they should be left alone." Tweet

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