Dean Rock (born 26 February 1990) is an Irish

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

er who was a senior member of the Dublin county team from 2013 to 2023. He has represented Dublin at all grades, Minor, Junior, U21 and Senior. He is a noted free taker and scored the winning point from a free in the 2017 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.

Colm O'Rourke Colm O'Rourke (born 31 August 1957) is a Gaelic football Manager (Gaelic games), manager, former player, retired secondary school principal, Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcaster and columnist. His National Football League (Ireland), ...

has described Rock as "statistically the best free taker that has been to Croke Park".

Early life

Born in Ballymadun,

Garristown Garristown () is a village in County Dublin, Ireland. It is also a civil parish in the historic barony of Balrothery West. As of the 2022 census, the village had a population of 619. Location Garristown is 18 km north of Swords, and ar ...

, Rock was born into a family with a strong association with Gaelic football. His great-grandfather, grandfather and granduncle all worked as groundsmen at

Croke Park Croke Park (, ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is referred to as Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and headquarters of the Gaelic At ...

, while his father, Barney Rock, is an

All-Ireland All-Ireland (sometimes All-Island) is a term used to describe organisations and events whose interests extend over the entire island of Ireland, as opposed to the separate jurisdictions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. "All-Irelan ...

medal winner with Dublin.

Playing career

Secondary school

Rock attended the

Catholic University School Catholic University School ''(C.U.S.)'' is a private (voluntary) secondary school for boys in Dublin, Ireland. The school was founded in 1867 by Bartholomew Woodlock as a preparatory school for the Catholic University of Ireland, the predeces ...

where he played

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

in the absence of a Gaelic football team.

Club

He simultaneously came to prominence at juvenile and underage levels with the Ballymun Kickhams club before making his debut with the senior team in 2008. Since then he has won one

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

medal and two county senior championship medals.

Inter-county

Minor and under-21

Rock made his debut on the inter-county scene when he was selected for the Dublin minor team. After an unsuccessful tenure with the minor team, he later won an

medal as part of the Dublin under-21 team.

Junior

Dean Rock represented Dublin at Junior level in the 2009 Leinster Junior Football Championship. Dublin were knocked out in the semi-final by Louth. Dean Rock scored a total of 14 points for Dublin in his two appearances for Dublin Juniors.

Senior

Rock made his senior debut during the 2012 league when he was introduced as a substitute against Donegal in March. He made his championship debut the following year against Westmeath. Since then he has won six

medals, beginning with his first title in 2013 and followed by five successive championships from 2015 to 2019. Rock has also won six

medals and five

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

medals. Rock has been awarded two All Star awards for Dublin in 2017 and 2016, when he finished the season as top scorer of the

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) () is the premier inter-county competition in Gaelic football. County (Gaelic games), County teams compete against each other and the winner is declared All-Ireland Champions. Organised by the ...

. Rock only started his first league match for Dublin in 2015, after which he participated in 63 consecutive league and championship games. He is noted for his taking Dublin's frees, while attaining hitherto unimaginable levels of accuracy. Having spent to years as a substitute in 2013 and 2014, he studied placed-ball kicking and worked kicking expert Dave Alred, as he revealed in 2017. In the 2016 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final replay defeat of Mayo, Rock scored 0–9 (including seven frees). In the 2017 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final defeat of Mayo, Rock scored 0–7 (including three frees), including the late winner through Lee Keegan's thrown GPS pack. In the 2018 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final defeat of Tyrone, Rock also scored 0–7 (including four frees). Rock's fifth point of the drawn 2019 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final (which gave Dublin a lead of 1–7 to 0–6) was his 411th point for his county in league and championship in his 88th game. Combined with his 14 Dublin goals, Rock passed Bernard Brogan the Second to become the second highest scorer ever in Dublin football. Unusually, Rock has done this mostly through points; he has the lowest goal-scoring record among the top ten (with only

Charlie Redmond Charles Redmond (born 1963/1964) is a Dublin-born former Gaelic footballer who played at senior level for the Dublin county football team, Dublin county team and current manager of Trinity Gaels GAA, Trinity Gaels seniors. His notoriety within t ...

's 15 goals within reach) and achieved the feat while making fewer appearances than those around him in the all-time list. Rock holds the record for the fastest goal scored in the history of All-Ireland SFC finals, after sending the ball past David Clarke directly from the throw-in of the 2020 final, breaking Kerryman Garry McMahon's record which had stood since the 1962 final. On 16 January 2024, Rock announced his retirement from inter-county football and now contributes to the GAAGO podcast.

Career statistics

Personal life

Rock is married to Niamh McEvoy, the Dublin senior ladies' footballer. They have a daughter called sadie rose rock and live in McEvoy's home town, the affluent Dublin suburb Malahide. Following the completion of the five-in-row in 2019, Rock spent a week in New York with Ciarán Kilkenny and Paddy Andrews. He debuted the "Dean Rock Free Taking Project" in mid-2020.

Honours

;Dublin City University *

Sigerson Cup The Sigerson Cup is the trophy for the premier Gaelic football championship among Higher Education institutions (Universities, Colleges and Institutes of Technology) in Ireland. It traditionally begins in mid January and ends in late February. T ...

(1): 2012 ;Ballymun Kickhams *

Leinster Senior Club Football Championship The Leinster Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football tournament played on a knockout basis between the senior club championship winners of the competing counties in Leinster. The current holders of the Leinster title are K ...

(1):

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Dublin Senior Football Championship The Dublin Senior Football Championship (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the '' Go-Ahead'' Dublin Senior Football Championship) is an annual Gaelic Athletic Association competition between the top Dublin GAA clubs. The winners of t ...

(2):

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

;Dublin *

(8):

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Leinster Senior Football Championship The Leinster Senior Football Championship, known simply as the Leinster Championship and shortened to Leinster SFC, is an annual inter-county Gaelic football competition organised by the Leinster GAA, Leinster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Asso ...

(10):

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(5):

* All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship (1):

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

* Leinster Under-21 Football Championship (2):

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

;Individual * GAA-GPA All Stars Awards (3): 2016, 2017, 2020

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rock, Dean 1990 births Living people All Stars Awards winners (football) Ballymun Kickhams Gaelic footballers DCU Gaelic footballers Dublin inter-county Gaelic footballers Gaelic football forwards Gaelic games players from Dublin (city) Winners of eight All-Ireland medals (Gaelic football) 21st-century Irish sportsmen