Jason Foley of Kerry celebrates after the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Dublin and Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin.
By John Harrington
If you’re trying to identify an obvious improvement this Kerry team have made in the last year, look no further than the goals conceded column.
In 2021 they conceded 12 goals in eight games in League and Championship, whereas this year they’ve just conceded three goals in 12 matches.
They’re defending much better as a team now, but when you assess the efficacy of this Kerry defence it’s impossible to ignore the impact being made by one individual in particular, Jason Foley.
The Ballydonoghue man has been an absolute rock at full-back this year for the Kingdom, dominating a succession of opponents and giving his team a reassuring presence around the small square they lacked for quite some time.
Foley made his senior debut back in 2017 for Kerry, but it has taken him five seasons to mature physically into the elite defender he has become.
Now he’s a huge presence in that final line of defence because he has filled into his frame. Gone is the coltish, almost gangly defender you felt was there for the taking by more physically and mentally seasoned opponents.
Fellow Ballydonoghue footballer, Paul Kennelly, has witnessed Foley’s transformation at close quarters.
“That was probably what held him back in the first few years, but in the last 18 months we've noticed at club level as well that he's a different beast completely,” Kennelly told GAA.ie.
“Maybe a few years ago someone like Damien Comer might have a physical dominance on him, but I couldn't see that happening anymore.
“He's a massive man now, and that was always going to happen. He was always really tall and maybe a bit gangly when he was younger, but that's gone now. He's a huge specimen of a man and we've seen that over the last few games.
“He was put in there with Kerry two or three years after he came out of minor and we were delighted as he was a clubmate of ours but in hindsight he was probably a little bit young and maybe didn't have the physique for it for a while.
“He was always going to be the answer, it just has taken time. He's only 25 so he still has a good few years ahead of him and I'm sure he'll be there in that position for the next seven, eight, or even nine years because he's the sort of guy who keeps himself very fit. There'll be huge longevity there too.”
Jason Foley pictured in his debut season for Kerry playing against Tipperary in the 2017 McGrath Cup.
Kennelly, a former Kerry junior, is a fine footballer himself and the focal point of the Ballydonoghue attack.
That means he regularly goes head to head with Foley in training games, so he has a keen appreciation for how sticky a marker the Kerry full-back is.
“It's a little bit harder now than it was a few years ago!” he says when asked how he fares in those training matches.
“When he first burst onto the scene with Kerry you might still have a little bit of an edge in strength against him. But that advantage has gone.
“Even if you did get out in front of him, I always say he has the longest hands I've ever seen. So if you did get out in front of him once or twice, he'd always get back at you and get a hand in, so it's impossible to get away from him.
“He's just an extremely, extremely tight marker and just loves defending, it's his bread and butter.
“He was always a fantastic athlete. He always just had those gears and that's what set him apart. From a young age he was brilliant at athletics and was on Irish teams and stuff like that.
“He was a sprinter and a hurdler and he brings that athleticism into football.”
That athleticism was very obvious in Kerry’s Allianz Football League Final win over Mayo.
In the 72nd minute when most other players were running on fumes, Foley set off on a length of the field sprin tthat saw him outstrip the Mayo cover defence with ease and finish a close-range goal that put the cherry on a very sweet win for the Kingdom.
James Carr of Mayo in action against Jason Foley of Kerry during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Quarter-Final match between Kerry and Mayo at Croke Park.
It was a real sit up and take notice sort of moment where you realised there’s more to Foley’s game than you maybe had previously given him credit for.
“I think that's something people don't realise outside of Kerry, and probably didn't realise outside of our club for a long time either,” says Kennelly.
“In the last few years he's been happy enough to just do his defending and leave the ball off to Gavin White and Brian Ó Beaglaoich and these lads and let them open up the legs.
“But I've always know he has serious pace because of that athletics background in sprinting. The pace he has when he takes off, I've seen it in club games numerous times, it's just absolutely frightening. Even when there are some really fast guys chasing him down, the gap just grows and grows and grows.
“He can finish as well, he's a wonderful kicker. We've seen it a bit this year and it wouldn't surprise me if he kicks a point on Sunday or even a goal like he's already done this year, that would be nice.”
Foley hasn’t just matured physically in the past year, he looks a much more confident player too.
He’s more proactive in how he defends and is playing with a lot more personality. No longer is he just trying to stop an opponent, he’s making it his business to boss them and put them on the back foot.
“Yeah, absolutely,” says Kennelly. “It's the last 18 months we've seen it. We won the county Junior final with our club in 2020 and that was the first real year where he was just totally, totally dominant in every game he played. He was a contender for man of the match every game, he was playing centre-back.
“Or if there was a job to be done marking some guy, he did that as well. That was the year when I probably said 'wow' in a few games. Just total dominance physically, and that speed as well was just prevalent in eveyr single game we played.
“He's really brought that in to Kerry now. Every step he has taken has been a forward step so we're delighted with that as club people.”
Jason Foley is likely to be given the task of marking Galway danger-man, Damien Comer, in Sunday's All-Ireland SFC Final.
The expectation now in Ballydonoghue is that their clubman can play a huge role in helping Kerry to their first All-Ireland SFC title in eight years.
Stopping Damien Comer, Galway’s match-winner in the semi-final against Derry, will be very high on the Kerry agenda and the likelihood is that Foley will be given that key responsibility.
“If I was picking the team that's who I'd be putting him on anyway,” says Kennelly. “Comer was absolutely outstanding the last day, he really took the game by the scruff of the neck.
“He'll really have to be pinned. Jason will have to be the man for Comer, he has the height, strength, and pace for him.
“He'll absolutely relish the chance to mark Comer. He'll be rubbing his hands at that prospect and he'll back himself because his confidence will be up because of the way he's playing.
“I've no doubt he'll deliver again on Sunday, it’s going to be a massive weekend and we can’t wait for it.
“He deserves this medal. The work that lad has put into it is outrageous really. So he deserves it.
“If he plays well Sunday there could even be an All-Star in there for him as well which would be amazing.”
