Return of the King - Shefflin's new role creates intrigue in Kilkenny future
Declan Bogue
AT SOME POINT in the coming months, Henry Shefflin will be back in some class of a Kilkenny tracksuit, being a leader and setting the best example possible as the new manager of the U20 team.
All the same. Hear me out.
Why does it feel like a sackcloth and ashes moment? That this is his penance? Was July 2024 to September 2025 a period of decontamination?
It all goes back to The Handshake. The moment when Brian Cody decided to fix Shefflin with an icy glare and hold on to his hand while Shefflin had already turned to walk away, before disentangling himself, while also aiming a look of disgust when Cody’s Kilkenny met Shefflin, in charge of Galway, in 2022.
It still shocks. It was hugely significant.
It is perfectly reasonable to say that one person alone let themselves down that day and it wasn’t Shefflin.
All the same, Cody inflicted damage on the Ballyhale man.
Even with his ten All-Irelands, his three Hurler of the Years, his three All-Ireland club titles as a player and two more as manager of Shamrocks Ballyhale, this was Cody’s way of driving an invisible space between Kilkenny and their favourite son.
Ten years back, at the All-Ireland hurling final of 2015, journalists slurped at their gristly beef in the Croke Park press room.
One man from local radio in Kilkenny – who you could have counted as being in the know – made the pronouncement that Cody intended to stay for another five years. By which time Henry Shefflin – besuited down the corridor in the suite of The Sunday Game – would have accrued sufficient managerial experience to take over by himself.
The plan was a good plan. But then Shefflin won two All-Irelands as manager and found that he liked being hooked into the mainframe.
Accepting an invitation to be a Kilkenny selector under Brian Cody – a ceremonial role if ever there was one – was never going to work for him at that point.
Going to Galway was a logical decision. But he found the going tough there. Cody’s final year as manager carried a nasty stain when he manipulated The Handshake after their Leinster round-robin game.
The next time they met in the Leinster final, Shefflin proved himself to be some man, but the words exchanged in the moment of Hanshake Part II, and his rueful head-shaking as he back-pedalled towards the Galway camp followed by some tense pursing of his lips demonstrated how livid he was in the moment.
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A year later, he might have gotten some closure as Galway led Kilkenny, now under Derek Lyng, in the dying embers of the Leinster final. That was before a rash, booted clearance was conjured into an incredible last-play goal for Cillian Buckley.
Despite that Galway team being at the start of a long slow decline when he got there, they still reached two All-Ireland semi-finals where they were beaten by Limerick, which absolves them of any shame.
Anyway, here we are in 2025 and Shefflin is once again in the Kilkenny camp. The grandees of the county board knew they had to reintegrate him into the system. They have acted after a suitable period of repose.
‘Return Of The King’ would have been the obvious headline to accompany such news, but it is notably absent.
This is a man who never looked for but earned praise such as Jimmy Barry-Murphy: “He is most certainly the greatest hurler that I have ever seen, and I even saw Christy Ring towards the end of his days. But this guy outshines everything that I have ever seen on a hurling field.”
Or Joe Canning, “Everybody models themselves on him because he is the ultimate team player and everyone wants to be like him.”
When Brian O’Driscoll was asked who the greatest Irish athlete was, he answered, “That would be the hurler Henry Shefflin, this guy has been an absolute phenomenon for the last 12,13 years.”
So, what lies ahead?
Don’t forget he is a talented manager. His All-Irelands with Shamrocks in 2019 and 2020 were achieved in a seriously competitive environment.
He’s back in charge this year. There was no handy year out after Galway. Last Saturday they played in the first round and beat Erin’s Own 1-32 to 2-8. They now have Thomastown in the quarter-final on September 28 which will be broadcast on TG4.
When he gets his teeth into the new role, he will be hyper aware that the U21 sides that won four All-Irelands between 2003 and 2008 backboned the senior team for many years whom he played alongside.
Since then, they have won just one, in 2022.
The strikingly detailed press release by Kilkenny details how he has coaching collaborator Richie O’Neill, former county minor coach Sean Kelly, and Brian Hogan alongside him. It would appear he has all he wants.
And U20s has become the logical and obvious jumping off point for future senior managers. Examples include John Kiely, Pat Ryan, Derek Lyng himself and Liam Cahill over the last decade.
Meanwhile, Derek Lyng has beefed out his own senior backroom with Eddie Brennan and Niall Corcoran on board, for their two-year arrangement.
Unless Lyng starts racking up Liam MacCarthys, it’s obvious that this is a clean line of succession.
This is still the return of a prodigal son. In time, the calf will be fattened, the Bulmers will be uncapped.
But first, he will be brought to a drill of spuds and instructed to pick out a few bucketfuls before the table is laid.
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