Lacey: Players devoted to their cause

It was from O’Neill’s pub in Vilamoura harbour on this weekend last year that Karl Lacey watched the All-Ireland final.

Unlike the rest of the patrons in the hostelry, he didn’t view it on its own merits but how it applied to him. He’d seen the semi-finals and deduced the teams weren’t “world beaters”.

He had timed his holiday with the final “to get out of the country”, when the build-up would have been difficult. Only a piece of the hype brought itself to him.