Foley, Vincent
January 01, 2001
Vincent Foley
Former Meath midfielder Vincent Foley knows what it is like to represent the Royals on All-Ireland final day.
When Vincent Foley sits down to watch an All-Ireland Football final at Croke Park, memories of the 1970 All-Ireland decider come flooding back to him. On that occasion, the Duleek giant lined out at centrefield for the Meathmen but was unable to prevent the Royals from succumbing to defeat to a Mick O'Dwyer-inspired Kerry.
While defeat may have been Foley's lot, that was arguably his finest hour in a Meath jersey. He was given the task of marking no lesser a man than the great Mick O'Connell and emerged with his reputation considerably bolstered.
He recalls: "Even back then, Mick O'Connell was a legendary figure and not too many midfielders ever got the better of him. Because he was such a big name, I had to sacrifice my own game to mark him and I succeeded in restricting him to just one point from play.
"Unfortunately, Kerry still proved too strong for us and Mick O'Dwyer was a real thorn in our side, scoring something like 1-7. But we had a great year overall and I have some great memories from that time."
Weighing 14 stone and standing at 6"2, Vincent Foley broke onto the Meath panel in late 1965, having come through the under 21 ranks. He was a substitute in 1966 when Meath went to the All-Ireland final but were defeated by a Galway side just completing the three in-a-row. A serious neck injury ruled him out of the panel the following year and thus, he missed out on an All-Ireland medal.
In 1968, however, Foley returned to the fray and succeeded Ballinabrackey's Peter Moore in midfield. He would remain an automatic choice in that position until he retired from the inter-county scene in 1972.
1970 was undoubtedly Foley's most successful year. Partnering Ballinlough's Vincent Lynch in the Meath engine room (both had played Sigerson Cup for UCD and had won a New York Championship with Donegal together), he would prove a vital player in the Royals' march to the All-Ireland final.
Excellent victories over Westmeath and Kildare were followed by a remarkable performance against Offaly in the Leinster final. Trailing by 11 points early in the second half, Meath staged an amazing recovery which had them back on level terms by the 30th minute.
The final 10 minutes were as dramatic as they come (championship games were played over 80 minutes at that time). A Willie Bryan goal put Offaly three points clear but, in the time remaining, Meath showed tremendous character to reel off four points without reply to snatch victory on a 2-22 to 5-12 scoreline. To this day, it is remembered as one of the greatest games of all time.
"I'll never forget that game as long as I live," says Vincent. "Offaly had been 10 points up at half-time and when they went further ahead after the restart, we looked to be in serious trouble. But Tony Brennan kept us in it with some fine points and it was fitting that he landed the winner with time almost up."
Meath subsequently defeated Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final (sweet revenge for '66 according to Vincent) but the Kingdom denied them of outright glory in the final.
Despite being one of the most feared and consistent teams during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Meath's number of All-Ireland triumphs amounted to just one. Needless to say, Foley is disappointed by that fact.
"We should have won more than one All-Ireland," he claims.
"We had a powerful team, probably the strongest in terms of physique that football has ever seen. Huge men such as Peter Darby, Martin Quinn, Jack Quinn and Mattie Kerrigan were the backbone of the team and we were feared and respected by everyone.
"Unfortunately, we were around at the same time as the great Galway team of that era and I'm convinced that we would have won three or four All-Irelands but for them. In saying that, there were a lot of All-Ireland contenders back then. In Leinster alone, you could never be guaranteed of beating teams like Kildare, Dublin, Laois, Longford, Westmeath and, of course, Offaly."
Foley retired from football in 1974, having won two Leinster medals (1966 and '70), an O'Byrne Cup medal (1968), a New York Championship (1969) and an Intermediate Championship memento with Duleek (1966).
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