Ulster Senior Football Championship
DONEGAL assistant boss Maxi Curran insists it has been “a pleasure” to be able to watch the opening stages of the Ulster Championship, rather than being thrust into the heat of battle straight away.
The Tir Chonaill men came out on the right side of last year’s preliminary round battle with Tyrone in Ballybofey, but the effects of that energy-sapping game – and a gruelling Ulster Championship campaign as a whole - took a toll on Donegal as the summer progressed.
This year, they find themselves in the unfamiliar position of being the final Ulster side thrust into provincial action, as they will take on boss Rory Gallagher’s native Fermanagh in the quarter-final on June 12.
Gallagher and right hand man Curran were interested observers as Tyrone swatted aside Derry at the weekend, but will have paid particular attention to the Ernemen’s victory over Antrim the week previous.
And that extra preparation time – it will have been nine weeks since their Division One semi-final defeat to Dublin when they run out at Mac Cumhaill Park – is a blessing, insists Curran.
“It’s a pleasure, rather than a difficulty,” said the Letterkenny man.
“It’s been such a long run for us this last couple of years – we played three Division One teams on the way to the Ulster final last year, which is unheard of really.
“So it was a great reward for us being the last name out of the hat this year, it’s something we haven’t had in a long time.
“We felt we had a wee bit more room for manoeuvre this year, that we could tether our plans a wee bit more appropriately towards June time, as opposed to having to be at full tilt for a joust with Tyrone in the middle of May, as was the case last year.”
And Curran insists that, despite looking flat in the second half of that League semi-final defeat to the Dubs, the reaction to their performance had been “hysterical” in some quarters.
He added: “Look, it was as interesting as it was amusing.
“Two weeks previous there was two points between us and Dublin with 67 minutes on the clock, Michael Murphy was sent off with 15 minutes to go and we were very much in the game. Then two weeks later we were finished as a team.
“It’s peoples’ perceptions of the League, people do get hysterical about one result, they get carried away with one good day and equally get carried away with one bad day.
“We knew at that stage, we were so far out from the Championship - and it’s no secret a lot of our boys have a fair bit of mileage on the clock - so we couldn’t go at it hell for leather for the entire League and still be fresh for June.”
