All-Ireland LGFA Intermediate Championship
Down v Cavan
Sunday, venue TBC, 2pm
THE Down ladies’ footballers believe they have not shown their true potential this season, and that is the foremost thought on their minds as they begin their All-Ireland Intermediate Championship campaign.
Down will play Cavan in round one of their group one games (Roscommon is the third team in the group). The Breffni team beat Monaghan in the Ulster final to win back-to-back provincial titles. Cavan also earned promotion to Division Two.
Both those goals would have been targets for Down at the start of the season. Instead, Colm Donnelly’s team missed out on promotion from Division Three to Division Two, and were beaten by Monaghan in their Ulster semi-final.
Laoise Duffy is the Down team captain. She explained how the team are feeling.
“We will be going into the next game with a point to prove,” Laoise said.
“We want to prove not only to everyone else, but also to ourselves that we do have the ability. And we should be up there with the rest of the teams that have been winning games.
“We had such a big focus to get out of Division Three and unfortunately that didn’t happen and that was quite a knock for us.
“We are eager for the next game.”
Division Three Down lost to Division Two side Monaghan in the Ulster Ladies Football Intermediate Championship final by 0-13 to 0-8 at the start of May.
Laoise said: “We felt like we didn’t perform.
“We had the ability and the talent (to win), we just couldn’t get into the swing of things.
“We would have loved to have gone on to the Ulster final but it was not to be.”
They lost to Monaghan in the Ulster Championship and this may have had a knock-on effect as Down lost their final two league games.
Down needed a win in their final game to gain promotion, but suffered defeat to Antrim after conceding a late goal, that keeps them in Division Three for 2027.
In the full story Laoise goes on to explain what they expect from Cavan.
