Brian Cody has scoffed at the suggestion that Dublin are a team of manufactured hurlers.

The Metropolitans' natural hurling ability has been questioned since they exited this year's championship at the hands of Tipperary last weekend and Cody - whose side defeated the Dubs in the Leinster final - finds this criticism "condescending" and "completely wrong":

"The same people were saying six months before that they were capable of winning the All-Ireland final, so it was a huge change in how people looked upon them," the nine-times All-Ireland-winning Cats boss states in The Irish Times.

"I would say it's certainly condescending, call it what you like. I would consider Dublin to be a top team, an absolute top team. I've been saying this for a long time.

"Dublin will be very disappointed with how they played. They didn't perform as they'd like against us and they certainly didn't the last day. It's not for me to comment on Dublin except to say that I would have seen Dublin as one of the teams with the potential to win the All-Ireland as they were so very close last year. What I'd be saying is that they're much better than they looked on both days.

"They performed badly on the day - as many teams have done before - and the same level of remark wasn't passed upon other teams who have also failed to perform in given situations. To me, they have outstanding players and have proven over the past couple of years exactly the quality they have.

"There was nobody questioning their natural ability over the past couple of years whereas it's easy enough to hit them with that now. But it's completely wrong as far as I'm concerned." Tweet

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