Cork’s Shane Griffin preparing for fourth FAI Cup final when Shels meet Derry

CARRIGALINE soccer player Shane Griffin is loving life at Shelbourne as they prepare for the 2022 FAI Cup final against Derry City at the Aviva Stadium.

The full-back joined the Reds earlier this year and he is an important cog in Damien Duff’s well-oiled machine at Tolka Park.

Their target as a newly-promoted club was safety, and Shelbourne achieved this along with qualifying for their first FAI Cup final in eleven years.

Griffin, who helped St Pat’s win the trophy in 2021, also played in two cup finals with Cork City. He was on the winning side in 2017 and he tasted defeat the following year when Dundalk edged out City 2-1.

Despite years of experience on the biggest stage in Irish football, Griffin will never tire of stepping out at the Aviva Stadium.

“There was the two in 2017 and 2018 with Cork City and last year with St Pat’s and this is my fourth now with Shelbourne and I’m buzzing, I can’t wait to go back,” he said. “I don’t think you ever get used to cup finals. Everything that comes with it and the atmosphere it creates, you never get used to it. It’s great to be back there.”

The final will be an accumulation of a long season for Griffin and Duff, who is at the tail end of his first season in senior management. The Irish football centurion, who won two Premier League titles with Chelsea in the early noughties, took over Shelbourne in November 2021.

Griffin is well aware of who his manager is, he was in primary school when Duff scored the third goal in a 3-0 win over Saudi Arabia at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

This meant that Griffin had to pinch himself regularly during his first few training sessions with Duff at Shelbourne.

“It’s great, the first few weeks you might be thinking ‘I’m getting trained by Damien Duff’ but I think after a week of preseason with him shouting at us and working us hard you forget about it,” Griffin explained. “In fairness, he is a great guy and a great man manager and you could see the progression over the year in myself.

“With the rest of the team, everyone has improved so much and I think that the performances over the last month or two have shown that. It’s a credit to the gaffer and all his staff.”

The Reds’ priority this season was staying in the top flight of Irish football, something they failed to achieve in 2020.

Shelbourne had been fighting to get back up since 2013 and their moment came with a 3-1 win over Drogheda United in 2019. The emotional outpour after such a dramatic title decider ended abruptly as Shelbourne slid down the Premier Division after the restart in 2020 and they were relegated through the play-offs.

FOCUS

Those memories have been firmly buried at Tolka Park, and their focus is now on next month’s FAI Cup final at the Aviva Stadium on November 13.

Before their big day out, Shelbourne will have faced a number of top teams including Derry City and St Patricks Athletic. Griffin wants the team to keep winning before Shelbourne’s showdown with Derry at the national stadium.

“We know how important it is to go into the cup final in form,” Griffin said.

“Winning games of football is good. Getting used to winning games is good. Over the next few weeks, we won’t take our foot off the pedal. We have to keep on it and make sure we are sharp going into the final.”

While counting down to the final, Griffin will be working on his UEFA B Licence. The full-back has a keen interest in coaching, something which goes back to his work with the Carrigaline U17s in 2019. Griffin developed a love of coaching at his boyhood club in Ballea Park and he used the last three years to gain various qualifications and badges.

“When I was playing with Cork City I was able to do a bit of coaching with Carrigaline’s U17s at the time and I’ve done a few badges since,” Griffin said, “I’m on my B Licence at the moment and it is something I am interested in.

“It’s quite difficult. I suppose it’s new and a lot of it this year was online and I kind of had to learn how to use a computer for the first time.

“I suppose, with stuff like that, I found it a bit more difficult than being on the pitch and coaching with the kids. But it is something new and enjoyable which is great.”