Calm at the centre of the storm

Since the mid-1990s Majella Griffin has steadfastly fired hundreds of annual scores for club and county.

Sixteen years ago she was part of the Clare junior ladies football team that won the All-Ireland title, while in 2001 the St Senan’s National School  teacher picked up a Munster senior championship and a NFL division 1 league medal with Clare. That year Majella was one of three Clare players, along with Noelle Comyns and Eithne Morrissey, to win an All-Star.
Just last year she was part of the Clare team that won the All-Ireland intermediate title, when they beat Tipperary in Croke Park. Although Majella retired from playing inter-county football this year, she still managed to pick up her first senior club medal on September 4.
Since then the Gaels have added a Munster intermediate medal to their haul. If they win in Nenagh on Sunday, their collection will have to make room for an All-Ireland club medal.
Since Majella Griffin first kicked a size four on behalf of O’Curry’s-Kilkee and Clare she has noticed that public interest has escalated manifold. Once thought of as “great girls” because they played football, support for club teams in particular has increased dramatically since ladies football began to take root in the 1980’s. The condescension has since evaporated.
“A lot of supporters are saying that they never thought that ladies football was as good as what it is and that they’d definitely go to games again,” Majella noted.
“Even around school in Kilrush, the kids and the staff are talking about it. There’s flags up around at home and Carrigaholt, Kilkee and Cross are all done out in bunting. It’s a boost for West Clare as well as for us,” she said.
As one of the on field West Clare Gaels leaders, Majella has no problem speaking her mind in the dressing room if the need arises. However she feels that most angles are already covered with respect to effective leadership.
“The majority of the team would have been there in 2007 so they would know the lay of the land. Patrick (Foley) and Darragh (Kelly) would have nearly everything covered but if something had to be said, the older players wouldn’t hold back. But there’s such a good team bond there at the moment, everything is said and done in a good spirit,” she maintains.
Although Majella has plenty of medals from her inter-county days, plus an intermediate county and Munster junior medal from ’07, her main priority this year was to add a senior county medal to that collection.
“Getting out of Clare was definitely our number one target and for me personally, the target was to win a senior county championship. We definitely are stronger this year compared to ’07. Everyone has matured and everyone has got that bit stronger. Even in defeat in ’07, we learned a lot from that and hopefully we can bring that to the game on Sunday,” she said.
Although West Clare Gaels have won their recent games pulling up, Majella Griffin only has to cast her mind back a couple of months, to remind herself how difficult emerging from Clare was.
“Even though we’ve been having big wins, it hasn’t felt like that. They have always felt like tough games. The Kilmihil and Banner games were especially tough as were the Cooraclare and Liscannor games in the round robin,” she recalls.
West Clare Gaels know that if they are to pull it off this weekend, they will have to play near to their maximum level for an hour. Majella Griffin has been calmly delivering for club and county throughout her career.
Although the scoring load has been more evenly distributed this season, West Clare Gaels still need their free scoring leader as much as ever. Especially on the national stage when her big game know how could be pivotal to the result.
“It’s rare that a club would get to two All-Ireland finals. It’s great to be back there again and hopefully this time we can put right what happened in 2007,” the West Clare Gaels free taker concluded.