Legend On The Line

Noel Griffin talked to Tom Flynn

(first published in the April 2010 Limerick FC programme)

Noel Griffin (back row, 3rd from right) with the Waterford FC FAI Cup final team of 1959 (pic courtesy of Paul Elliot, WSM)

Noel’s soccer career began in the early 1950s when he joined local club Bohemians as a left footed player, getting forward on the wing to score goals. The late Leo Dunne and Ben Wadding were early influences on his career, and in the season 1952/53 he got a call-up to under 12 international team trials, making an appearance against Wales in Swansea in a game that finished a 0-0 draw. Noel remembers it was just after the war years and each member of the party was asked to bring a present in the line of food, something that seems very strange to us in these days. There were two fellow players from the Waterford area on the team, George Kennedy of CYMS and John Keane his clubmate from Bohemians. Noel went on for nine more seasons to serve Bohemians with great success.

It was in the 1958/59 season that Noel’s career began at League of Ireland level, signed by manager Alex Stephenson (who had the distinction of representing both the Irish Free State and the Republic of Ireland, and won an FA Cup medal with Everton in 1936), another who had a big influence on his career. He remembers some of Stephenson’s unorthodox methods – how they would train on hard ground wearing just one football boot, on the foot they normally didn’t kick with, and how, if things were not going to plan on the football field he would remind them that they were still a strong side for holding up the teams that were above them. It was a big disappointment for Noel and his teammates to lose to St Patrick’s Athletic in the 1959 FAI Cup final replay. There was an abundance of talent in the side at the time, including the Hales, the Fitzgeralds, and the ever-present Con Martin of Aston Villa fame, who tried to convince Noel to travel to the UK for a trial with Villa.

Having moved into his permanent place in the team at left full back, Noel became a settled member of the sixties Blues side. During that time his favourite grounds were Dalymount Park, Milltown and Oriel Park, but there was no ground he did not like to play on, as he was just happy to put on the blue and white of his native city. Shamie Coad was one of the players he most enjoyed playing with, but he feels it would be unfair to choose who was the most skillful player of his time.

He was a member of the first league winning side of 1965/66, but the highlights of his career were the Manchester United games of 1969. Noel worked as a cutter at Waterford Crystal for 33 years, but when this came to the media’s attention there were many calls for photos and interviews with Mr Noel Griffin, the MD of Waterford Crystal who had the same name! Man United v Waterford FC was to be the first soccer game played at Lansdowne Road, and Noel had to mark George Best, and indeed held him scoreless. Asked did he find Best a difficult opponent to mark, Noel replied that he didn’t, that he contained Best by using a ploy he learned from Joe Mercer of Aston Villa and England, talking to Best all through the game and keeping him off guard. Best responded to Noel in the first half with a reply that cannot be printed here, but after the game he gave Jimmy McGeough a photograph to give to Noel, while asking “is that full back all there?”

During his league career his most difficult opponents were Frank O’Neill of Shamrock Rovers and Miah Dennehy of Cork Hibs. On one occasion Frank O’Neill went down the wing on a run, and Vinny Maguire said to Noel “leave him to me”, whereupon Frank immediately went past Maguire but failed to outpace Noel who was on his toes. His best pal on the opposition side was Ben Hannigan, a docker by trade, who had a long career which included league titles with Shelbourne, Dundalk and Cork Celtic and 15 months in Germany with Fortuna Koln.

Noel finally hung up his boots in the mid 70s while playing with Ferrybank in the third division of the Junior League. Noel had some great times with Jimmy Searson, John (Slim) Murphy, team mates from his playing days Noel Duffy and Jim O’Shea, and Peter Ahearne who informed him he was running a schoolboy team. Whatever the request, selling flags or helping out, you would not find Noel Griffin wanting.

His son Robert went on to fly the “Griffin” flag in the League of Ireland, starring for several seasons with the Blues, and winning a League medal with St. Pat’s, under manager Pat Dolan.