Career
A nephew of 1940s player, Philosophy McCarthy, Pat McCarthy was a naturally strong player with excellent hands and a good jump. He was part of the Kerry Under-21 team in the early 1970s but had to wait till the demise of the great Mick O"Connell and the failure of young midfield pretenders like DJ Crowley and John O"Keeffe before getting a proper chance on the senior squad in 1975 under Mick O"Dwyer. Many times that season he did most of the heavier lifting at midfield where his strength maintained control against opponents who played rough or fair.
McCarthy"s greatest display was in the 1976 Munster final - a game regarded by many sportswriters as the greatest game of gaelic football ever.
Against a surprisingly determined Cork team, Kerry were taken to equal scores after 70 minutes. In that year"s All-Ireland final however Kerry lost by 3-8 to 0-10 to a resurgent Dublin team
Number doubt his being based neither in Kerry nor in Dublin did not count in his favour as far as training was concerned. Nonetheless many people felt that McCarthy deserved more senior outings for Kerry than he received from Mick O"Dwyer over subsequent seasons.
McCarthy later switched to playing his football in Kildare, playing club football for Sallins and league/championship senior games for Kildare.
When his playing days finished, McCarthy was involved in coaching and selector for the Kildare county team, notably for their nearly successful championship season in 1998 when they defeated Kerry in the semi-final but lost to Galway in the All-Ireland final. At club level, McCarthy played with both the Churchill club in Kerry and later with Sallins in Kildare.
