McCurry: Tyrone ready to leave the pain behind

By Arthur Sullivan

"It is a very, very disappointing performance and I said to the players afterwards it was as bad a performance as I've been involved in with the Tyrone team over all the time that I've been involved - at any level and at any age."

This is what Mickey Harte said back in late March after Donegal beat his Tyrone side 1-13 to 0-6 in Ballybofey , pushing them towards the brink of relegation from Division I in the process.

That chastening defeat marked the low point of Tyrone's spring, even though relegation was to come on the following Sunday. This Sunday coming, just seven weeks on from that defeat in Ballybofey, Tyrone face Donegal again at the same venue, except this time in the significantly more heated environment of the Ulster Senior Football Championship preliminary round.

"Yeah, it did hurt," said Tyrone forward Darren McCurry at the Ulster Championship launch last week as he reflected on that defeat to Donegal back in March.

"We were well beaten. They beat us very comfortably and it was hard to take. It was hard to get out of it. We put in a lot of work in the league and to go down to Donegal and get hammered, which we did, was hard to take for the players and the management."

A few days after the game, Harte said morale was "very low" in the Tyrone camp , and he emphasised how hard it would be for his players to recover. However, they put in a fine, battling performance in their final round game against Kerry, earning a draw and almost grabbing the two-point win which would have saved them.

"It took a while to get out of that but we're slowly but gradually getting up there," said McCurry.

"Suffering a defeat to Donegal like that, knowing that we're going to play them in the championship, was a big loss and a big downer for the team. But I think we've pulled ourselves up well. The boys know that the championship is coming up, it's a championship buzz and everyone loves the championship."

Certainly, everyone loves the championship but Tyrone can't have loved championship meetings against Donegal too much in recent times. Donegal have beaten Tyrone in their last three championship encounters, in 2011, 2012 and 2013, and given Tyrone's relegation from Division I this spring, Donegal are favourites to make it four championship wins in five years against the Red Hands.

McCurry makes plain the respect he has for Donegal.

"Donegal have very good forwards. Michael Murphy, Paddy (McBrearty)...very good players. We felt our defence maybe, against Donegal, in their counter-attack was a wee bit open, even in the league. So it was something we knew and had prepared a lot for. But we're still not there yet. We got relegated to Division II. There's a lot of work to be done so we need to see if in two weeks time if it has paid off."

When asked if he thinks Tyrone can emulate what Donegal, Ulster champions in three of the last four years, have done, McCurry sees a ray of light in the fact that, like Tyrone do this year, Donegal had a successful U21 team in 2010 - the year before they made their breakthrough by winning their first Ulster senior title in 19 years.

"Donegal had good U21 teams, when Michael Murphy came through there, he was really the start of it. And It's a lot about confidence," he said.

"It builds confidence in the players. They (Donegal) get on a run, they're an extremely well-drilled team with a pile of confidence. That's what we have to try and get to. We feel we have the talent but we just can't produce it every day. It's a work in progress. We do feel we have the players there but it just hasn't happened over the last couple of years."

Although just 22, McCurry has been a regular in the Tyrone starting line-up for the last few seasons and this year his role up front is likely to be a very prominent one, given that he is essentially one of the attacking leaders of a new generation of Tyrone footballers yet to taste provincial or All-Ireland success.

"I've got stronger, I've got bigger, I'm more mature now. I feel like I'm playing well," he said.

During the league, McCurry played in a deeper position than he had been deployed in before by Harte, but he sees that as a necessary and natural thing as a result of the demands placed on defenders by the modern game.

"Last year I was the inside man but this year I've been kind of pushed up and down," he said. "I had to adapt my game, I had to get a lot fitter and stronger. And that required a lot of work off the field. But I'm happy enough with my game. I've put in a lot of hard work.

"Everyone has to put in the work that is required for the team. It's about spreading the work over the whole team. Backs don't get enough credit for the job that they do and how hard they work."

After the low days of late winter, early spring in Tyrone, there are signs now that early summer is bringing with it some cheer back to Tyrone football. Their U21s swept to an All-Ireland title win at the start of May, and Ruairi Brennan, Cathal McShane and Mark Bradley are members of that panel already involved with Harte's senior squad, with more likely to follow in the next few weeks and months.

However, like has been the case with Tyrone success in the past, their win was not greeted with unaninmous acclaim, with some media comment criticising the manner of their final win over Tipperary. It's not something that bothers McCurry though.

"The U21s did well," he said. "We don't really read into the newspaper stuff that much! There's plenty of good players out there in Tyrone but we (the seniors) just haven't been playing that well. But we have a great opportunity now against Donegal."

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Donegal v Tyrone, Ulster Senior Football Championship, Ballybofey, Sunday, 4pm (Live on RTÉ)