‘It’s like hard labour in prison playing inter-county football’
Paddy Prendergast, a long-time resident of Ballinorig just outside Tralee, had a ringside seat for the accusations and bile that in the recent dark months that followed his native Mayo’s All-Ireland semi-final replay win over his adopted county last year. “They were very disappointed with their own display,” he noted. “But at the same time I think they realised they didn’t have something Kerry usually have, which is a team that is bloody hard to beat.”
Prendergast’s own winter was no picnic either. Mayo’s subsequent final defeat to Dublin, their second in as many years, left him feeling like a relic of an era the county have come agonisingly close to replicating. He has gripes about that defeat, such as how long it took Dean Rock took to kick the winning free, but the 1950 and ’51 All-Ireland winning full-back is more exercised about the cumulative effect these close shaves are having on the
