Brian Hogan pays tribute to 'phenomenal' Cody

Kilkenny's 2011 All-Ireland winning captain Brian Hogan has paid tribute to the "phenomenal" Brian Cody who has announced his departure from the Cats after 24 seasons in charge.

Cody’s decision comes six days after the county’s narrow All-Ireland defeat to Limerick, but the Liam MacCarthy Cup was still furnished with black and amber streamers on 11 occasions during his tenure.

Hogan was the man who was honoured with lifting the trophy for the eighth time under Cody’s watch 11 years ago, and he paid tribute to his former manager’s brilliance.

"He’d make you make you feel seven foot tall. He’d really make you believe you could go through a wall or take on anyone," the O’Loughlin Gaels man told RTÉ’s Saturday Sport.

"As a team, [he’d] make you believe that once you got your own game right, and it was very much internal focus on yourself, getting yourselves right, be prepared, that everything else would look after itself from there.

"He was a bit of psychologist maybe; I know the current Limerick team have Caroline Currid there and Brian in some respects was like that. A tough taskmaster as well."

Hogan said that the tough demeanour of the manager added to the successful dynamic of the dressing room, even if sometimes he lost out personally.

"The thing is, it worked. Sometimes it's worked in your favour and sometimes it didn’t.

"On a personal level, I came in in '04 and went straight into the team which would have been relatively unusual for a championship [side].

"I was on a crest of a wave and then got dropped and it took me two years to get back in. I saw first-hand...if I was performing, if I was doing what they wanted, hurling to the level, then I would get back in.

"The years have been littered with examples where Brian has put