Lorna McNamara battling through the pain for Clare

Michael Bolton

Clare's wait for a trophy ended in camogie as they defeated Dublin in the Division 1B final, with forward Lorna McNamara scoring 2-6 in the decider.

Having seen the hurlers win an All-Ireland and be involved in huge days, the camogie side got into the championship with the momentum of silverware.

It was an extra-special day for McNamara, who has missed the last two seasons due to injury, and is happy the drought has ended.

"It was definitely something we had set out to do at the start of the year," said McNamara.

"We don't get too many finals and opportunities to win. That was a big goal for us."

A groin injury has seen McNamara watch from the sidelines in the last two years.

Learning to play with chronic pain is something the 24-year-old has had to get used to, which was helped by Femoroacetabular Impingement (FAI) surgery.

This has led to adjustments in her training and her day-to-day life.

"It's tough enough; the chronic groin thing is ongoing.

"It's just a matter of managing the load and just preparing for matches and training when I can, really.

"If I've trained in the evening, I'm up in the morning before work, basically doing a warm-up session in the gym just to try and get a bit of movement in. I try to keep the steps up throughout the day, and activation before training, as well.

"No one has really told me exactly what it is.

"It's sort of a tendinopathy on my adductor, so just there in my groin. It's just a matter of warming it up really well before games and even half a bottle of Deep Heat, if you like.

"At training, I should only really stick to the hurling, but there are times when you feel guilty for missing out on the running session, so you do a running session.

"Next morning, you wake up, and it's at you again. A lot of the time, if I manage it well, I can wake up the next day and be fine to train again whenever it's on.

"But when it does flare up, it just takes a little bit of time to get right again."

Clare will hope she can continue to battle through the pain as the All-Ireland group stages get underway.

Clare will be in a group of six with the teams that did not get to the semi-finals last season. Two will come out of the group to the quarter-finals, with the bottom two in a relegation play-off.

McNamara is under no illusions of the challenge they face, but is confident of Clare's chances going forward.

"It'll be tough to make it out of our own group. It's five games we have, so we'll just have to put our heads down and really work hard to try and make it out of our own group.

"We have three games in a row, so you really know where you're going to stand after those three games. Hopefully, if we win those, the pressure is off for the last two games, but it is going to be a big battle, definitely, between all of us.

"If we do (get through), you never know what can happen in a quarter-final."