Ger Loughnane thinks that Brian Cody's decision to stay on for a 19th year as manager of the Kilkenny senior hurlers is an error of judgement that will come back to haunt the Cats.

Writing in his Irish Daily Star column, the RTE pundit states that the 11 time All-Ireland winning manager is going down the same path as other long-serving managers such as Mick O'Dwyer, Sean Boylan and Alex Ferguson!

"Cody's place in the annals of the GAA is already set in stone.

"Not only is he hurling's greatest manager of all time, but you could make a strong case for Cody being the greatest hurling personality of all.

"Does he now think that he's indispensable to Kilkenny, that he owns the job?"

Loughnane continues: "This is the mistake the other two great long-serving managers in the GAA, Mick O'Dwyer and Sean Boylan, made at the tail-end of their careers.

"By the time they left, the cupboard was so bare that many years of famine ensued.

"And even Alex Ferguson - manager with whom Cody can be favourably compared - left little for his successors to work with.

"He managed to wring a Premier League title out of his final season but his ammunition had run very low. I think the turmoil at Old Trafford since Ferguson's departure takes from his legacy.

"I took Kerry 11 years - an eternity down there - to be a force again after Micko.

"And Meath have never been force since Boylan walked away.

"These were the two greatest football managers but both stayed on for at least three years too long, and their counties' fortunes suffered as a result.

"Cody didn't win the 2016 All-Ireland but his team were in the final, having escaped from two close shaves against Waterford in the semis.

"Had he left, he would be leaving a team with a reasonable chance of winning silverware in 2017."

The two-time All-Ireland winning Clare manager concludes: "Cody hasn't made many errors in his long and storied career but this is one. He should have stepped aside."

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