I KNOW WAT THEY MEAN BUT..
DEREK MCGRATH agrees with the comparisons between Waterford and Mayo – up to a point.
There are similarities in the two counties’ quest for ultimate glory – Mayo haven’t won the All-ireland football title since 1951, while Waterford were last hurling champs in 1959.
But in the meantime Mayo have lost nine All-ireland finals to Waterford’s three. They’ve reached the final four times since 2012 and lost three of them by a point, one of them after a replay.
Last September Waterford only lost by three points in their first final appearance in nine years, but didn’t push Galway to the edge in the way Mayo did with Dublin a fortnight later.
Deise manager Mcgrath explained: “If you meet someone from down the country, they’ll say, ‘Ah Jesus I’d love to see Waterford win the All-ireland’.then you meet the next person and they’ll say, ‘I’d love to see Mayo win the Allireland’.
“There’s kind of an affinity of kindred spirits, in terms of how people felt about the two counties.
“But Mayo have been a lot more consistent in terms of reaching All-ireland finals.
“Over the last seven or eight years they’ve been really, really close. They’ve lost a couple of All-irelands by a point.
“So I don’t think we’ve reached the level Mayo have been at in