Kilkenny boss Brian Cody has hailed his side's performance in this evening's All-Ireland SHC final replay.

Speaking after winning his 10th All-Ireland in a managerial capacity, Cody refused to make comparisons with his previous nine successes, adding that they were all special in their own right.  

"2012 was the sweetest in 2012 and that's the way it works. This one is the sweetest now because it's on today," he said.

"Each one is the sweetest when it happens. It's not a question of the sweetest. Today was brilliant, a superb win for us obviously. It was a brilliant win because the performance was excellent, outstanding I thought.

"The championship is up for grabs every year and we take on the challenge. We did it and we didn't get to where we needed to last year and questions begin to be asked then. Is this the end of it and all the rest of it? But we just took on the challenge again this year and this is where it ended up."

Whereas the drawn game had been a good day for forwards, Cody felt defences held the upperhand on this occasion.

"The standard of defending was absolutely magnificent," he continued.

"It was at a level that was very, very difficult to see because the closing down and blocking that was done…in 30 seconds we got in three blocks at various ends of the field. To me that's what hurling is all about because to me that's one of the best skills of all in the game.

"It's not too difficult to play when you have the ball, it's when you don't have the ball the trick is to try and make sure you get it back. I thought the defending and the blocking down was magnificent right to the very end. It had to be."

Cody was also delighted with the contributions of the three players he called up for the replay - Padraig Walsh, goal-scorer Padraig Walsh and man of the match Kieran Joyce.

"They were outstanding. You can talk about individuals forever and those two you can obviously talk about. Padraig Walsh was savage all over the field, but it was a complete panel effort again."

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