Jason Foley: Cherishing special moment that pass all too quickly

The moments post-match are ones that will live with Foley for a while yet.

Fri, 12 Aug, 2022 - 07:25

Murt Murphy

Kerry fullback and probable All-Star Jason Foley is just about getting over a whirlwind couple of weeks that culminated in being feted by his own people in Ballydonoghue and Lisselton on Monday night when he brought Sam home to North Kerry.

But speaking at the Kerry SFC launch prior to heading home on Monday night, he revealed there are special moments post-All-Ireland Final win that are rarely talked about but are ones that he will cherish forever.

"Absolutely not and I don’t think we realised at the time, that that moment passes fairly quickly.

"Obviously, when the final whistle went it’s a dream you’ve had since you were a kid. That moment, those couple of minutes, that half hour inside the dressing room with the lads... I remember saying to myself I have to cherish this moment because it passes fairly quickly, but it was fairly special.

“Even leaving the pitch for us was a bit of a wrench. I just wanted to soak it all in, we were going around the pitch for what felt like a long time, but looking back it probably wasn’t. Even in the dressing room you just want to absolutely soak every second of it in and take it all in, because as soon as we left the dressing room obviously it was a little bit of a circus and there were formalities and things like that. We just made sure that we were enjoying the moments."

Jason and Tadgh Morley formed a solid spine in a defence that conceded one Championship goal, so with Tadgh missing most of 2021 was it difficult to get used to playing with him?

"No definitely not.

"Myself and Tadhg are playing with each other a good few years at this stage and you have to build up that mental telepathy with each other and, I suppose, in the big moments we rely on each other as a group, as a defence.

"A few of us have been around the block now a good few years and have been in semi-finals and finals. Relationships build up over time and we’ve a really positive relationship on the field and off the field this year and I think it really helped us this year.”

But a new manager at the start of the year with Jack O’Connor, how did that dynamic work?

“For me personally I’ve had Jack before. That sort of helped straight away, I just felt it was a throwback to when I was with the minor age group! I had him in 2014 and 2015 and it’s like when he came back, when he rang me first, where we left off. Obviously, Jack is a fantastic coach and manager so he was able to bring the group together, get a good team behind him."

The second-half display in the All-Ireland Final pleased Jason after a below-par first half.

“It was fantastic. When you’re playing it’s a little bit of a blur obviously, in hindsight maybe we were. We just focused on targets and stuff like that and try to achieve those targets. Obviously, we didn’t hit them in the first half and that was that. We weren't happy with that at half-time, we knew that once we redressed that we’d go a long way to winning it and we did in the end."

But the Ballydonoghue clubman admits there was pressure on Kerry to deliver Sam this year.

“There was. I felt a bit of relief. We were in semi-finals and two finals in ‘19. There was a certain amount of pressure on us, just to finally get over the line, of course it was relief. Just to finally get the job done. It was pure elation, but there was a bit of relief.”