Down's Laoise Duffy backing Bredagh to deliver Ulster crown

It has been an overwhelmingly positive year for her thus far and with an Ulster LGFA Senior Club Championship decider on the agenda on Sunday in Omagh, Laoise Duffy will be looking to add another memorable chapter to her 2023 story.

A TG4 All-Ireland Junior Football Championship winner with Down back in August, Duffy was named alongside her sister Orla on the TG4 Junior Team of the Championship a month later and picked up this award at a function held in Croke Park on 3 November.

Following the conclusion of the inter-county season, the Duffy sisters returned to their club Bredagh, where they are joined on the senior panel by their siblings Emer and Caoimhe.

A four-point haul from Laoise was one of many highlights from Bredagh's emphatic victory against Kilcoo in the Eamonn Rooney Coach Hire Down Ladies’ SFC showpiece in early October and she rattled the net last Sunday week as the Mourne women defeated Tyrone’s Errigal Ciaran on a scoreline of 4-08 to 1-08 in the semi-final of the Ulster Club Senior Championship.

This now leaves them 60 minutes away from securing a top-tier provincial title and while their opponents Clann Eireann will be appearing in their first final at this grade – in contrast to 2021 finalists Bredagh – Duffy knows that a big team performance is needed to get past the Armagh side.

"The girls have worked hard every game and come out with the win. It hasn’t been an easy road. The scorelines have, especially in the Down championship, seemed easier than they were. Every game has definitely been a battle and we’ve had to work for every win that we’ve gotten so far," Duffy explained.

"I think Clann Eireann are going to be strong all over the pitch. I think we’re just going to have to be on our game from 1 to 15