The ghosts of 1996 were revisited today on the Hard Shoulder podcast as Royalers Tony and Sweets sat down with Mayo's David Brady, who was there on the pitch in Croker in 1996, (aged 19 or 20, he can't remember himself) when the shit went down in front of the Hill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBnWAMf5DNQ
On the podcast, DB and the lads looked back on the litany of Mayo All-Ireland defeats that Brady endured as well as the All-Ireland he always knew he would win - the 2005 club All-Ireland.
Naturally, special attention was given to the infamous 1996 All-Ireland final replay between Mayo and Meath, and in particular, the ruckus that saw Liam McHale and Colm 'Coyler' Coyle sent to the showers early. Brady believed the fight was, in fact, started by Meath.
"Listen to me now for a second. 1996 in the first game, we were 7 points up with probably 11 minutes to go so would you in your right mind go out and fight these boys? When you knew you would beat these boys, when we knew we could take these boys to town, would you go into a dressing room and say 'one in, all in'? No."
The scars of 1996 run deep for Brady - he described it as the cruelest of all the many All-Ireland's he lost.
"I don't give a shite whether it's playing or supporting or coaching, when Mayo win the All-Ireland, that's when I'll get over 1996 as a person".
As for this Saturday evening's quarterfinal against Donegal, Brady is pretty bullish. "We'll win by six or seven points," he says.
There's all that plus chat about Ciaran McDonald's drink of choice and some west Clare lad named Horse, all in this week's Hard Shoulder.
