Cody not keen to lay blame at ref's door
February 24, 2010
Snow caused the second postponment of the Tipperary v Kilkenny NHL Division 1 game at Semple Stadium
Kilkenny boss Brian Cody has refused to criticise match referee Barry Kelly for his decision to postpone the Allianz National Hurling League tie between Tipperary and Kilkenny at Semple Stadium.
The glamour meeting of last year's All-Ireland finalists fell foul of the weather for the second time in four days following on from last Saturday's first cancellation.
Heavy snow once again forced Kelly's hand once again and the Westmeath official decided at approximately 7.20pm, 40 minutes before the scheduled 8pm throw-in time, that there would be no game again.
At the time, 3,200 spectators had filed into Semple Stadium for free and they were left disappointed once again when the news filtered through to the stands from the touchline.
At 8pm, the pitch appeared playable but Kelly took the welfare and safety of the players into consideration as a coating of snow had begun to lodge on the surface when he made the big call.
Cody, manager of the reigning National League and All-Ireland champions, said: "Barry's the boss, Barry called it off and that's it.
"We were down here two nights to play a match and it didn't happen. But I'm not going to start criticising Barry Kelly. He had a decision to make and that's fine. It's just very, very unfortunate."
The GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) will now decide when to reschedule the fixture and it could go back until the concluding stages of the National League campaign.
Cody revealed that he received the news of the latest postponement as his players warmed up at nearby Dr. Morris Park.
He said: "We were in the pitch above doing a warm-up. We just got a phone call saying the game was off. I didn't speak to anybody or Barry Kelly.
"It was called off on Saturday night, Sunday was a beautiful day. It could have been played on Sunday. It's unfortunate."
Cody added: "I'm not going to knock any concept (floodlit hurling) just yet. You can't legislate for the weather."
Cody added that he has no problem either with midweek games, explaining: "Midweek matches in the summer are fine. We went for tonight simply because we didn't want a backlog. There isn't room for a backlog of fixtures but that's what we have now." Tweet
