Eoin Cody relishing chance to 'beat the best' in Limerick rematch

Limerick come into Sunday's Allianz Hurling League Division 1 final in ominous form.

The Green Machine has shifted into top gear earlier than last year and a first league decider since 2020 (which was also the Munster quarter-final) is the result of five straight wins since the one-point loss to Cork in the opening round.

It is the first time in 35 years that the All-Ireland finalists have met in the subsequent league final and Kilkenny might be forgiven for wanting to bide their time as they seek to avenge last July's defeat.

But for forward Eoin Cody, testing themselves against the three-in-a-row standard bearers is always of huge benefit, win or lose.

"You want to play the best, to beat the best," the 22-year-old tells RTÉ Sport. "We're looking forward to playing Limerick.

"Last year was the first time that we played Limerick since 2019 and you learn from all these games.

"We will look at last year's game, learn from that and give it a proper rattle. You might win, you might lose, you might play again and hopefully we will in the future and it'll be the same again. If we go out and win or lose this weekend, it's not going to dictate what happens in the future.

"Last year, in the All-Ireland, we gave it everything we had. If we do that again, we'll give ourselves a right shot. I suppose we did hit a few wides in that game, which is probably something you look back on, and even myself personally is something you can focus on. The hard work, the hunger, the relentlessness is always there in this Kilkenny team. Maybe being a bit more ruthless in front of goal and take all our scores, if there’s a hook or a block extra we’ll do it, but I don’t think there’s anything there that we have to really focus on doing differently."

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