Darren McCurry grimaces slightly at the memory. Early March in Ballybofey and Tyrone have just been comprehensively outplayed and Mickey Harte's disappointment in his Tyrone players is palpable. The chastisement is all the more powerful because it is understated and calm.

In the coming days, the players hear it on replay and they read it. The message registers. “It did hurt,” says the Edendork man.“We were well beaten, they beat us very comfortably. It was hard to take, and it was hard to get out of it.

Brightest talents

“We put in a lot of work in the league and to come down to

Donegal

and get hammered, which we did, was hard to take for the players and the management.”

McCurry is one of the brightest talents to have emerged from Tyrone’s most dazzling period of All-Ireland prominence. He was 10 years old when the county won its first senior title in 2003 and progressed through Tyrone’s famed underage system in the understanding that winning stuff is what the county was all about.

Everything flipped with the unexpected emergence of Donegal under Jim McGuinness. This Sunday, the counties meet for the fourth successive summer and there is a sense among Tyrone players that the north-western county has repeatedly stalled their chance to build momentum.

"Donegal had good under-21 teams. Michael Murphy coming through with them, he was really the start of it. It's all about confidence too, building confidence in the players. They get on a run and they're an extremely well drilled team with a lot of confidence.

“That’s what we have to try and get. We feel that we have the talent, just we don’t produce it every day. It’s a work in progress. We feel we do have the players there, it just hasn’t happened over the last couple of years. It’s going to be a very tough game. We know that Donegal are in the top three in the country. We’ve trained hard, so let’s see where the two weeks take us.”

When the teams met in 2011, Tyrone were chasing down a third successive Ulster title. Their failure to win the Anglo-Celt since has led to loudening criticism of both the players and management- in some cases by players who flourished during the decade when Tyrone set the standard. McCurry is only 22 but is playing in his fourth championship and is a senior figure in terms of his on-field presence and leadership.

On song, he is one of the smoothest forwards in the game but this year Tyrone have returned to a more collective and protective approach. McCurry is happy to pitch in, dropping back and covering.

“No, no, no, everybody has to put in the work that is required to win. It is about spreading the work,” he argues. “The backs don’t get enough credit for what they do. Being a defender is very tough . . . I know it is not as hard as kicking the ball over the bar but it is not far off it. Last year I was an inside man so I had to adapt. I had to get a lot fitter and stronger but I am happy enough with that.

“And Donegal, they have very good forwards with the likes of Michael Murphy and Paddy and we felt that maybe our defence was a wee bit open to their counter attack. So it required something new and patience.”

Tyrone’s recent under-21 All-Ireland victory was the loudest proclamation in a while that they haven’t gone away as a football force. The problem has been recasting that underage excellence into a senior team capable of matching those of 2003 to ’10. Even allowing for the fact that players tend to idealise their own generation, McCurry nods when Owen Mulligan’s observation about contemporary players being merely happy to wear the jersey is put to him.

“I understand the point that he’s making. Some of the young boys coming through thought the Ulster titles were just going to keep on coming and you didn’t have to work hard. I understand his point. It does require a lot of hard work and dedication and commitment. Slowly but surely, I think the boys are starting to understand that. If you look at the likes of Donegal . . . the amount of work they put in, it’s paying off.”

Clearest Giveaway

The frequency with which McCurry references Donegal is the clearest giveaway of the fact the championship is imminent. It is as if no other team exists except for Tyrone’s preliminary round opponents. McCurry feels the squad has shaken off the torpor of its last visit to Ballybofey.

“I think the Tyrone players do have confidence,” McCurry says. “It’s about gelling as a team and playing well on that particular day. Sometimes we got the rub of the green, sometimes we didn’t. That takes a bit of experience, a bit of old and youth. Sometimes it’s hard to find that there. In some games, important games, we just haven’t clicked at the start of the Ulster Championship so we really need to be firing out of the blocks.”