Clerkin: Yvonne Connell is a real role model

Monaghan’s Emma Clerkin takes on the Gaelic Life team-mates quiz…

Name: Emma Clerkin.

Age: 25.

Teams played for: Monaghan Harps, Monaghan ladies, Coláiste Oiriall and Trinity College Dublin

Earliest GAA memory?

Wednesday evening training on the back pitch in Rooskey, I was five or six.

Which team-mate has been the most inspirational and why?

Yvonne Connell. I was 14 or 15 when I joined our club senior panel and Yvonne was always very encouraging – she drove standards at training. Yvonne represented our club at county level and she was a great role model for me growing up.

Who’s the best team-mate to train with and why?

County: Muireann Atkinson, top class attitude and great communicator. Always pushes for the highest standards at training.

Club: Ellen McDonald, she works like a horse, has a great attitude and is very competitive.

Which team-mate is the worst to train with and why?

The Cootehill Road girls are always late to club training so we will go with them.

Which team-mate do you want to mark in training and why?

County: Áine Loughman, she could run all day and running after her helps with fitness.

Club: Shauna Hetherington, she’d be one to keep pushing you on and we love a bit of healthy competition.

Which team-mate do you dread marking in training and why?

County: Leanne Maguire, one of us always ends up injured when we mark each other.

Club: Eimear Galligan, she doesn’t give you an inch.

Best score you’ve seen from a team-mate?

Jodie McQuillan’s point in the last minute of our league game against Roscommon. It was from such an acute angle and we needed the score to draw the game.

What win has your team celebrated the most?

We won the Intermediate Ulster Championship with the club in 2014. The game had to be replayed so it was a sweet victory.

Which team-mate is the best on journeys away?

Can always count on Maeve Monaghan, Chloe McBride or Órla Whelan McGinn for the chats.

Which club is the worst for journeys away?

Killanny, it takes half a day to get there.

What’s the funniest thing you’ve heard in training or in a match, and who said it?

Anything Aisling Gallagher has said about Aisling Ferguson’s goalkeeping.

What’s the worst excuse you’ve heard to get out of training?

Any last-minute texts before training when the weather isn’t great.

Which team-mate is the loudest in the changing room?

Jennifer Duffy giving orders.

Which team-mate would you want standing over a last-second penalty?

Éabha Sherry or Chloe McBride.

Which team-mate would you never want to see hitting a last-second penalty?

Shona Brady.

Which team-mate is the most sensible?

Amy Garland.

Who is the smartest of all your team mates?

Leanne Maguire has deadly vision, reads the game very well.

Who’s the best team mate to celebrate with?

Shauna Hetherington, no better woman to celebrate with.