Kilkenny secretary Ned Quinn admits that the county's achievements under Brian Cody have been beyond his wildest dreams.

Quinn was elected county chairman in 1998 - the same year as Cody took over the managerial reins from Kevin Fennelly - and since then the Cats have won seven All-Ireland titles and will become the first team in the history of the GAA to complete a first ever five-in-a-row if they beat Tipperary on Sunday.

"We came in together, me as chairman and Brian as manager, in the same year and I can well remember the first time we spoke," he recalled.

"Our wish was that we would win one All-Ireland because we hadn't won one for the previous five years. You couldn't possibly dream about things like this."

Quinn, who is in his third year as county secretary after serving nine as chairman, continued: "In a way, it's almost not a reality, it's incredible what this team has achieved and what Brian has achieved, but an awful lot of credit for that has to go to Brian. He is an incredible man.

"Not in any particular order, but his main attributes are his absolute honesty, his consistency, his sense of values. I mean, he has laid out a template there for anybody that wants to get involved in the Kilkenny team and he's stuck with that." Tweet

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