In the dying minutes Henry Shefflin pointed from a penalty rather than going for goal, after the forward appeared to look to sideline for guidance from Cody.

"I shrugged my shoulders and said do whatever you think yourself. I don't inspire Henry Shefflin what to do with penalties or whatever they are.

"Henry decides that himself and if he had scored it, obviously he'd be a genius. If it had been saved he'd be a lunatic. He gave us a score, we got a vital score and that score really mattered."

In what was the second lacklustre first half performance by Kilkenny against Galway this year, Cody put the slow start down to 'maybe even trying too hard'.

"We were a bit fussy at times, we still kept ourselves in it. It was a lot different to the Leinster final where by half-time we had let the game disappear from us. At times in the first half they could have driven it on further.

"We kept it fairly okay at five points (down) with them having scored a goal as well. Suddenly there wasn't a huge disparity in the amount of scores that each team got, if you like."

After begin outclassed in the first half, Kilkenny headed into the break 1-9 to 0-7 in arrears, a gap they quickly closed in the second half.

"It was a decent second half display by us after a first half when Galway were definitely the better team, so we put ourselves in a position where we at least were competitive in the second half and we put ourselves back into the frame to win the game.

"But Galway kept themselves in there too and they got a huge score obviously in the second half with that goal (from Niall Burke). That was a massive score obviously. That's the way it panned out. It's over now and we'll start planning ahead."

For all of Cody's experience of finals as Kilkenny manager, he had yet to manage in a replay - something he will tick off at the end of the month when the sides clash again at Croke Park on Sunday, September 30.

"I've obviously been involved in a few All-Ireland finals. We've won some and we've lost some and we've never drawn one but so be it.

"Anytime you're ever told you're in an All-Ireland final in three weeks' time, you'd be fairly excited about that.

"If it were six months away you'd still be excited. If you were told you were going to be in an All-Ireland final, it's worth being in it. What we'll do is change the scenario in the county for club games and that.

"That's a serious thing, because we're in the All-Ireland Under-21 final next weekend as well. So there'll be a bit of juggling to be done there. But look, three weeks, it will arrive."

A heated exchange occurred between both Cody and his Galway counterpart Anthony Cunningham at the full-time whistle following a disputed free which Joe Canning converted to set up the replay.

But the Cats boss was keen to downplay the incident, adding: "There was 81,000 people there today and every one of them were fairly excited and probably roaring and were fierce passionate at that stage of the game.

"Surely to God, the two managers of each team are entitled to be fairly excited and maybe not totally agreed on everything as well.

"If that's a strange thing to see, you haven't been at too many hurling matches. It happens every weekend at club matches, and everything else. Bit of excitement, no big deal. Shook hands, said well done Anthony, see you in three weeks' time."