Foley hoping experience counts as Donegal battle brews

Kerry may be favourites for Sunday's All-Ireland final, however, Jason Foley is expecting a battle to the finish against an impressive Donegal outfit as both sides aim to land the Sam Maguire at Croke Park.

The Kingdom's march towards glory suffered a set-back in June, losing out to Meath in Tullamore, which led to the back-door route of coming through the preliminary quarter-finals, however, Jack O’Connor’s side appear to be back to their best throughout the knockout stages.

Three Ulster sides in a row, as Kerry first accounted for Cavan, then took down the All-Ireland champions, Armagh, in the quarter-finals before securing their place in this year’s decider thanks to a victory over Tyrone.

And now one more northern side stand in their way as Jim McGuinness’ Donegal lie in wait at HQ on Sunday afternoon.

Donegal, likewise, had to take the road less travelled to the final, and have equally impressed en route to Jones’ Road, and while there may be a clash of styles with the way both sides play the game, Kerry defender Foley is expecting every eventuality.

"We're expecting a tough game," said Foley, speaking to RTE Sport.

"We're expecting it to go down to the wire, so yeah, we're expecting a battle, so we have to be ready for that, and we have to bring what we can to the game and hopefully that will be enough to get us over the line.

"We're reviewing their games and I'm sure they're doing the same for us and we're trying to find where we can get at them and they're probably doing the exact same, so it might be a clash of styles, all right, but I'm sure the game might take on a life of its own and we'll just be ready for whatever they can throw at us."

Foley in action during the June defeat to Meath

"I think we've just learned from game to game," said the Ballydonoghue man, when asked what had changed since that defeat to Meath in the round-robin stage.

"We've learned our lessons in games, and we've taken what we needed to learn and focused in on training and produced a performance and backed it up with another performance and here we are, we're in the final.

"So I don't even think we had a lot of time to read into a lot of that kind of stuff, we just have to focus on the games in front of us."

While much of the spotlight has centred around the gifted talents of Kerry star forward David Clifford, Donegal are also blessed with real attacking prowess, most notably in the guise of Michael Murphy, and Foley is embracing the challenge that awaits once the ball is thrown in on Sunday.

"I think I go into every game looking forward to a different challenge and they produce different challenges all over the field," said the 29-year-old.

"They have a real selection of good forwards and we'll have to be very wary of all of them, so yeah, absolutely looking forward to a different challenge."

A game of fine margins, perhaps, between the two forms sides of the campaign, and while it may come down to the kick of a ball, Foley is hoping that past experiences on the big stage can help Kerry get over the line on Sunday afternoon.

"Hopefully, it's something we can rely on, maybe coming down the stretch, that experience," said Foley.

"I've been in finals before and losing a few and only winning one; they're totally different experiences.

"So hopefully when the game comes around, we'll be able to harness some of those lessons that we learned in the finals that we lost."

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Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship final, Donegal v Kerry, on Sunday from 2.15pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player

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