The 16th Man

Such was the extent of twenty year old Tommy Prendergast’s league form in his debut season with annual underdogs Waterford, that in the Irish Independent’s preview of the Championship he was tipped as Waterford’s “Player who could make a name for himself”, describing him as ‘a no frills midfielder, physically imposing with substance first, style second.’ Their prediction was to ring true. Prendergast did make a name for himself. After Waterford disposed of Clare in their opening game of the Munster championship, the Granville Hotel awarded the young footballer their ‘Sportstar of the Month’ award for May. Waterford found the Banner men a much more imposing side than when they had clashed in the final round of league games in April. When more senior and experienced figures in the Deise side spluttered and stalled on the day, Prendergast was the engine who clocked up the mileage that drove them into the Munster semi final clash with Limerick. It was to be the third time these sides would meet in 2010.

Having won one of those previous two encounters Waterford had a real chance of reaching a Munster Final. However with only twelve minutes of the game gone, their game plan was unhinged as a controversial red card was issued to Prendergast for what referee Cyril Doyle deemed a striking offence while Prendergast was contesting a kick out. He insists however that it was not a sinister act of reckless abandonment. As he puts it simply in his own words, ‘My hand just went to the wrong place at the wrong time. I knocked the ball on with one hand and the other one just went back as I was travelling backwards. I didn’t know anyone was behind me. It could have been my own team mate. It could have been my own mother!’ He shrugs off Tomas O Flaharta’s analysis on the Sunday Game which stated that it was ‘a rush of blood to the head’ which seems to hint that the strike could have been intentional. ‘There was no malice in it. It was the first red card I ever received in my life. I was never so disappointed in my life. To have trained so hard all year and have a real shot at reaching a Munster final. Ourselves and Limerick had been at level pegging against each other in the league. To be sent off so early just put us at a real disadvantage and I couldn’t believe it had happened.’ Waterford struggled to find their feet after such an early knock back and in the end the Treaty side were convincing winners.

Manager John Owens spoke confidently that the decision would be overturned through the appeal process, but alas the CC saw the collision differently than most and Prendergast’s ban was upheld, meaning he missed out on what was to be Waterford’s last game of the year, the Qualifier defeat at the hands of Offaly. He found the CC meeting a strange affair and came out of the event with a distressing view of how this side of the GAA is run. ‘I didn’t know what to expect. No one told me anything about what was going to go on. They just sent me into a room and there were eight auld fellas and sure I didn’t know what to expect, all I could do was give my side of the story.’ Questioning the organisation of the CC’s disciplinary committee, he takes the stance which has been bread into him throughout his footballing career, that if you to set out to do a job then you should do it properly. The meeting proved to be a tense, unfriendly affair with a lack of even communication preventing a fair hearing.

Prendergast believes the system is definitely flawed and needs to change, proposing a simpler process without the rules and regulations language he found himself barraged with. He also indicated that a smaller panel with maybe two or three people who were genuinely interested in the case and its consequences would be more efficient. ‘They were throwing the numbers of rules at me as if I was supposed to know what rule 7.3 or whatever was off by heart. Half way through one of them was dosing in the corner and at another stage a fella stared at the ceiling for a couple of minutes. To be honest it just seemed like they didn’t want to be there and had no interest in my case. For me there was a lot on the line but they already had their minds made up before I got there. I have no time for the appeal committee after that to be honest.’ Grazing toward the topic of the controversial Joe Sheridan ‘goal’ which cost Louth a first Leinster title in 53 years he disagrees with the associations decision to leave it up to Meath to offer a replay to the unjustly defeated Wee County. ‘I don’t see why the decision should have been up to Meath. To me it was just the committee hiding. If they are able to use footage from the Sunday Game to penalise the likes of Galvin and Tomas O Se, then why can’t they step in over such a blatant thing that happened in front of the goal. I mean the umpire nearly had his nose stuck in the side netting looking at it.’ For Prendergast football isn’t a game, it’s a love affair and although his innocence was clearly ruptured through his brush with the darker side of the GAA, this year he has emerged, thankfully, a more mature, honest and straight talking person.

Not many Waterford hurlers have played in Croke Park so for a footballer it is a truly honourable distinction. However to play in Croke Park in your debut season is another thing and something he never thought possible when he first began training with the team in the winter of ‘09. Waterford’s first league game of what was to be a groundbreaking season came in the form of an away match against Leitrim on a wet and drizzly Sunday afternoon in early February. Roughly a hundred or so Waterford supporters, mostly consisting of family members and relatives of the players and coaching staff, watched as Waterford trailed by fours points with ten minutes to go. Prendergast was introduced and Waterford managed to over turn that deficit in a short space of time and win by three. After that he was a regular starter in the side. ‘I came on and did well and that was the start of it’ as he puts it. Due to his physical traits (he is a towering 6’5); unsurprisingly one of the best features of his game is his fielding ability. It unfortunately is a dying skill amongst the modern breed of defensively programmed defenders and the art often proves a disadvantage when one makes a fine catch only to come down and be surrounded by a blanket defence and lose possession for over carrying. The ‘mark’ rule was experimented with for the duration of the 2010 National League in an attempt to rescue the skill but purists felt it slowed the flowing movement of the sport too much. Prendergast offers his opinion on the subject: ‘I think it’s one that should have been kept on. It’s hard enough to catch the ball as it is with three or four lads going up with you and then you’re landing down in the middle of them so trying to use the possession wisely can be impossible, so I thought it was a great rule.’
The contrast between Waterford’s opening and closing league fixtures was incredible. Waterford played Clare in Fraher Field needing a win to secure the promotion they had craved so much all season. It was a searing hot day and the over 3,000 people poured into Dungarvan grounds to support the county footballers. Their stunning run of form had finally attracted huge numbers, something the footballers are not used to seeing at all. ‘It was great to see such a crowd there that day. We needed to win that game and you’d really notice the difference the supporters make. If someone scored a point or caught a great ball, a roar would go up and someone might shout out your name or something and it would drive you on and give you that momentum you need to win important games. Hopefully the support will stay with us now for Division 3 next year and we can keep building and win over some more followers.’

Speaking calmly, Prendergast reflects warmly on a childhood dream of donning the white and blue of his home county and taking to the field at GAA headquarters, which unbelievably came through after seeing off Clare and qualifying for the league final showpiece. He admits that while walking around the stadium prior to throw in, nerves and butterflies echoed around his body as he tried to process the incredible feeling. However once the ball was thrown in he says it was just like any other game. It is easily believed for the midfielder was at his instinctive best during the game, with his clever dependable play, and an astonishing amount of ball was funnelled through him to keep the Deise attacks ticking over throughout the seventy minutes. It was a game he feels they should have won and he himself nearly made the headlines when, with the game hanging in the balance, he managed to stretch his foot on to a rebounding shot only to watch agonisingly as his effort came back off the crossbar. Talking so relaxed about the experience he says ‘The only difference I noticed about playing in Croke Park to be honest was every time the ball went over the bar I kept looking up at the two big screens to have a look at the replay!’ Being extremely modest about such a rare feat for a local big ball player he says ‘But there were only about 10,000 or so up there that day. There’d obviously be a massive difference when it would be full to the gills with 80,000 people roaring their heads off.’

It’s not easy plying your trade in a hurling frenzied county and while a crowd of 3,000 for a crucial game for the hurlers would be extremely disappointing, for the footballers it is a huge step in the right direction. Although they train as hard as anyone, the rewards for their efforts for now, is near non existent. Whilst the hurlers get an annual trip abroad the footballers do not even receive a weekend away, but Prendergast shows no bitterness toward the situation explaining, ‘The hurlers do a lot of fundraising around the county so they can get a holiday abroad at the end of the year so you couldn’t really have two teams going around the county asking people for money with these tough times.’ He continues ‘When we reached Croke Park for the League final the Deise Supporters Club came to us and said if we joined for twenty euro each they’d put us up in a hotel in Dublin after the final which was just brilliant because if we didn’t have the hotel a lot of players would have went straight home after the match. That was the job really because we got to stay together and go out together and have a few drinks as a team.’ The recognition by the Supporters Club clearly meant a lot after a tough and historic league campaign which saw the once whipping boys of football string together an eight game unbeaten run and finish on top of the group.

After the weekend’s shock results which have really opened up the championship for the first time in years, the future of the GAA is clearly luminously bright and Prendergast believes the key to this lies in the grassroots; at club level. ‘Club is where it starts. Everything is done with the club. I owe the club a lot. When I was a young fella I might have a soccer match and football training on the same evening and with the father there was no question which one of them I was going to. So it was driven into me at a young age. Club football is really important. I love going down to the field with the lads and just having the craic and playing on a team with the fellas you grew up beside.’ One aspect of inter county football which Prendergast found very difficult was the restrictions placed on the giant toward his club football. Obviously and understandably John Owens and co did not want such a gifted student of the game to suffer a burn out. At a young age many players take on too much and soon find themselves on the injured list with tweaked and twinged muscles. Prendergast explains his guilty conscience caused by his new found success as a starlet of a rejuvenated Waterford football side. ‘When your playing inter county a lot of times they don’t want you training or playing club matches on top of the league campaign so its really difficult because the lads at the club would be putting it in three nights a week and you’d be missing all the hard training and challenge matches with them. I’d maybe be lucky to go training with Kilrossanty once every three weeks and when you start ahead of some of your friends who have worked hard, you would feel guilty because club football means everything to us. I want to win a lot of county medals with Kilrossanty and its difficult when the management tell you not to play some club games.’

Such is Prendergast’s passion for football and his club that after he starred for 70 plus minutes in Waterford’s impressive 2-17 to 11 point Round 6 league victory over Mick O Dwyer’s charge’s Wicklow, hours later he churned out another full sixty minutes in Kilrossanty’s opening league campaign against Brickey Rangers. ‘Ah yeah well sure I turned up at the match after being told just to watch it but we were short a few because of this and that so the selectors told me throw on the gear and they’d throw me on at half time or something but they ended up starting me instead. I was only delighted to keep going to be honest!’

Although 2010 has seen the resurgence of numerous new teams and names that have set the trail toward Sam ablaze, Prendergast isn’t naive about Waterford’s chances of All-Ireland success. For now the National League will remain their bread and butter, their hunting ground which is so plentiful with fruit and big scalps. For 2011 their drive will continue to seek promotion to the dizzy heights of Division 2, a feat proven possible by Tipperary, Antrim and Sligo who have gained back to back promotions in the past few years. When it comes to championship time however there is a huge mental handicap of being in the same province of footballing giants Kerry and Cork. ‘At the end of the season we had a players meeting and we talked about our commitment. We gave such a massive drive for the league that after it, the championship just didn’t feel the same, because its always in your head that how will we ever beat Cork or Kerry and we had given everything to get promoted.’. Although the back door system offers a second chance for defeated teams to crawl toward Sam via the untraditional route for now its conception is little consolation to small developing teams like Waterford. He surrenders to the facts that ‘you might win a game or two but eventually your going to come up against a top team and shur what can you do there?’ Prendergast does however take some inspiration from Roscommon’s tremendous achievement of being crowned Provincial champions. ‘They were relegated to Division 4 yet they won out Connacht. They obviously put there heart and soul into championship and look where it got them. Nothing is ever impossible I suppose.’ The beauty of sport is the hidden depths of the unknown. Anything is possible. As American novelist William Faulkner wrote, ‘The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.’ With a successful and coloured debut season under his belt who knows what Herculean heights 2011 will bring for Tommy Prendergast as Waterford footballers continue in their quest to seduce the romantics of GAA.

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