Brendan Foley Elected Munster Rugby President

The Annual General Meeting of the Munster Branch was held on Wednesday night in Thomond Park before a large audience.

The outgoing President Michael Carroll thanked everyone for their help and support over the season and proposed Brendan Foley, Shannon RFC, as the new President of the Munster Branch for season 2024/25.

After retiring from the presidents role in Ballina-Killaloe RFC after nearly two decades Foley said it was a total surprise when Shannon gave him the nod for Munster Branch President.

“It was a surprise to put it lightly. I had made up my mind a few months previous that I would finish up my roles in rugby and just be a supporter. But nonetheless I am honoured that Shannon would consider me for the nomination.”

Foley began his rugby journey in St. Mary’s CBS just 60 years ago. Originally considering a career on the soccer pitch, he is very grateful to the volunteers and coaches in the school for taking notice of him and encouraging him to continue playing rugby. He then went to having an illustrious playing career with Shannon before getting the chance to don the red of Munster and the green of Ireland for a number of memorable matches.

Speaking about his vast career he said:

“I started in St. Mary’s CBS would you believe, just a little over 60 years ago and played with them underage. I owe a lot to the volunteers at St. Mary’s because at the time I quite fancied myself as a soccer goalkeeper but they could see me as a rugby player.”

“At 17 I won a junior cup medal with them and that would have been a month after Mick Carroll won the schools cup with St Munchin’s. I was at that final oddly enough. I would have gone on to play against Mick a number of times in the years after when he had his time with both Garryowen and Highfield.

“Then shortly after winning the junior cup I went to Shannon to play senior rugby and I had a reasonably successful 14 years with the club, won a few, lost a lot, but it was a very enjoyable experience.”

Foley was a feature for Munster during the 70s and 80s, appearing in a number of famous fixtures. An “outstanding performance” in a narrow defeat against a touring Australia in 1976 earned him his first ever cap for Ireland just two weeks later.

He was also apart of the team that overcame the mighty All Blacks in 1978.

“During my tenure with Shannon and Munster I was also picked for Ireland and did three tours in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. I wound up with 11 caps originally then I picked a further two last autumn when they recognised a number of games where we weren’t officially capped.”

After retiring from playing, his involvement in the rugby world did not stop. He went on to coach at a number of different levels before playing a part in the revival of Ballina-Killaloe RFC in the early 2000’s.

Speaking about his life post-rugby Foley said

“After I retired from playing I went on to coach a bit in Ballina-Killaloe and then when Anthony started school in St. Munchin’s somebody said to me “ah sure you’ll be going to matches you might as well help out”. So I was there then for a couple of seasons coaching the junior cup team.

“After that then I was the coach of the Shannon senior team for a year and then with the Shannon U20s where I had a very good side. We had a great season and we were lucky enough to see a number of them play senior with Shannon and then a couple went on to play with Munster as well. Eventually I ended up coaching the junior team in Shannon with Terry Fitzgerald and we won the junior cup in 96. After that then I went back coaching kids.”

Even though he was ready to step away from his many roles in the world of rugby, Foley is ready for one last call up and is hoping for a successful season for the province in both the professional and domestic game.

“I’m hoping we’ll have a good season for the Munster senior team and for our clubs in the AIL to go very well. We’d like to have a few more up in Division 1A and teams moving up rather than dropping down. I’d hate to think of losing another senior club so I’d like to see teams progressing in the competition.

“Then I’d hope to see the domestic junior league flourish and see a couple more clubs field 20s teams as it seems to be a problem of we have a lot of u18 teams but they don’t follow through to 20s so it would be nice to have a few more teams to bridge that gap.

“I’d love to see each club in the province have a couple of referees because they are a scarce commodity and they are vital to the game. You must have a football and a decent referee to play a game of rugby.”