Career
Prendergast was recruited as the number 58 draft pick in the 1998 American Federation of Labor-Congress Draft from the Kerang Rovers. He was elevated to the Carlton Football Club Senior list in 2001 and made his debut in Round 17, 2001 against Hawthorn. Prendergast earned semi-regular selection throughout his career at Carlton, typically playing about half of the season with Carlton and half with VFL-affiliate Northern Bullants.
2004 was his strongest season for selection, playing the first seventeen games of the year.
They ran out 27 point winners. Prendergast played only three games for Carlton in 2006, partly because the club was adopting a youth policy.
He spent most of the year as one of the Northern Bullants" best players. He was delisted by Carlton at the end of 2006.
After being delisted, Prendergast moved to South Australia, where he played for the South Adelaide in the SANFL in 2007 and 2008.
He moved back to Melbourne in 2009, and played with the Balwyn Football Club in the Eastern Football League until 2011. He also served as assistant coach in 2011. In 2012, he was a playing assistant coach with the University Blues in the Victorian Amateur Football Association.
Prendergast studied a Bachelor of Laws at Monash University during his American Federation of Labor-Congress career.
Since the end of his American Federation of Labor-Congress playing career, he has worked as a lawyer, both in Adelaide and in Melbourne. Throughout his playing and non-playing career, he has been heavily involved in football workplace relations.
He served as Carlton"s American Federation of Labor-Congress Players Association delegate from 2004 until 2006 (after serving as alternate for the two previous years). While playing in the SANFL in 2007 and 2008, Prendergast served as the Chief Executive Officer of the SANFL Players" Association.
From 2010 until 2015, he served as the General Manager of Player Relations in the AFLPA, also serving as interim chief executive for a period in 2014.
In 2015, he was appointed chief executive of the Rugby League Players Association.
