UCC can count on fast-learning Foley between the sticks 

What separates Éire Óg's Dylan Foley from the many multi-faceted goalkeepers around the place nowadays is how late he came to the position.

LEARNING THE TRADE: UCC’s Dylan Foley reacts to a semi-final penalty save. Pic: ©INPHO/Evan Treacy

Dylan Foley lines out at corner-forward for his club, Éire Óg, and between the sticks for his college, UCC.

Nothing strange there, says you. Many’s the goalkeeper that wears the number one shirt for one team and a higher number for another.

Although there are several examples of the multi-purpose modern-day goalkeeper, current All-Star Shane Ryan is the obvious one. 

The Kerry custodian lines out in the full-forward line for his club, Rathmore, and top-scored with 1-3 from play during their All-Ireland intermediate final win over Galbally just last month.

Go back to his Sigerson days with UL and Ryan plied his trade in the full-forward line there too. In 2017 when UL came within a whisker of beating UCD in the semi-final, there was Ryan at full-forward.

What separates Foley from the many multi-faceted goalkeepers around the place nowadays is how late he came to the position.

Prior to the 2021/22 Sigerson season, Foley had never before stood between the sticks. 

He had never dabbled with the position at club level, be that at underage or adult. For Éire Óg, he always has been and remains a forward. When the club was promoted to the topflight of Cork football in the summer of 2021, Foley finished joint-top-scorer in their Senior A final win over Mallow.

His audition for UCC goalkeeper was a successful one and he became first-choice between the sticks for the college’s short-lived and winless Sigerson campaign this time last year.

Short and winless though it was, Foley made enough of an impression in his new position to earn a call up to the Cork panel. And when his Éire Óg clubmate Chris Kelly was injured during the county’s Round 4 League defeat to Galway, Foley was elevated to Micheál Aodh Martin’s understudy.

And when Martin injured his groin 24 minutes into the county’s Munster semi-final at home to Kerry, the rookie 'keeper found himself making his senior inter-county championship debut.

“Dylan, in fairness, was thrown in at the deep end completely,” said John Cleary after that game. “No goal went by him, [but] when Kerry pushed up on the kickout it made it very hard for us.” 

Foley returned to forward duty with Éire Óg later on in the summer but put in an amount of work on his kickout during the subsequent offseason.

That work has been reflected in a Sigerson campaign where the year-two goalkeeper has been instrumental in UCC returning to within an hour of a first final appearance since 2019.

His penalty save from UL’s Paul Walsh on the opening night of action was indicative of what was to come as Foley has gone on to establish himself as a shootout saviour.

In their knockout Round 3 tie against Queens, it was he who emerged as the UCC hero with a terrific sudden death save from Luke Donnelly, the 14th penalty of a nerve-jangling shootout.

In the quarter-final against St Mary’s, he saved three penalties to send UCC into this evening’s last four clash against TU Dublin.

“It is just about making yourself as big as possible. To be honest, the ball is so close, it is just about staying big and hoping one or two come in your reach, and whatever ones come in your reach you got to do well with. Thankfully, they went my way today,” said Foley after the quarter-final penalties success.

No doubt but UCC will be keen to avoid a third straight shootout in Carlow this Wednesday evening. But if proceedings do go that way, they know they have a safe pair of hands in the fast-learning Foley.