Annette Clark - Player of the month of July

The Tribeswomen’s march towards a date in Croke Park
has been propelled in recent weeks by outstanding performances in
midfield and Galway’s Annette Clarke is the deserving winner of
this award.

Clarke scored four points from play against Mayo in
the recent Connacht Senior Championship Final in Castlebar and was
a decisive factor between the two teams dominating the exchanges
in the middle of the park. The win against Mayo puts last year’s
beaten finalists in good stead for the All Ireland quarter-finals
which are due to take place in late August.

“It was such a lift to win the Connacht title
and get back on the winning track. We have experienced the high
of winning and All Ireland final and the lows of losing one in a
very short period of time and we know which side of the coin we
would rather be on. As a team we are going to get better as the
Championship goes on,” said Clarke.

A 25-year-old Garda from the Kilkerrin/Clonberne Club
in Galway, this is her second Player of the Month, having previously
been awarded the June Player of the Month in 2004, a year in which
she captained Galway to All Ireland success and was selected as
an All Star.

She said “I was shocked when I heard that I had
won the Player of the Month Award. I had been out injured for the
last couple of weeks with a hamstring injury and I was just concentrating
on trying to get back into the first 15, so I was delighted to hear
that I had been chosen.”

Galway will now face Meath in the quarter-finals of
the All Ireland Championships on 20/27th August. Meath were the
losing finalists in Leinster where they were surprisingly beaten
by Laois.