10 explosive minutes. Job done for the day.
Tyrone cantered their way past Cavan in Clones last Saturday evening. The Breffni never got into the groove and Tyrone were in cruise control from the word go.
Cathal McShane kicked a few points, so did Niall Sludden and then they were away in a hack. Darren McCurry joined in the fun then and with his three points arriving in a ten minute spell towards the end of the first half, this game was all over bar the shouting.
Three peaches from distance, the Edendork attacker showed pace, accuracy and confidence in abundance as he put Cavan to the sword. Coming in the final round of the qualifiers, last weekend’s lethal showing represented the culmination of a fine qualifier campaign where McCurry nailed his place on the Tyrone starting team. For a while at least anyway.
If you go back to the weekend previous against Kildare, the jinky attacker struck the all-decisive goal as well as two points to boot.
Darren McCurry finds the net for @TyroneGAALive pic.twitter.com/z4jidFfvgs
— The GAA (@officialgaa) June 29, 2019
Then against Donegal when so many Tyrone men were at sea, McCurry came in off the bench and kicked two worldies from open play off that trusted left boot.
If you go back to last year, it was a very different story with McCurry dropping himself off the Tyrone panel citing work commitments. Game time had been at a premium for a couple of years and he decided against making the commitment for the year.
Now he’s back and he means business with the most notable change in his game the increased levels of selflessness and team play. Rather than taking pot shots, he regularly looks for the pass to men like McShane and the Donnellys.
It’s working a treat for him and both Colm Parkinson and Matty Forde feel he’s a huge part of Mickey Harte’s plans for the Super 8s now.
“He’s a streaky player. When he’s on song, he’s top quality. I thought it was interesting that he was taken off after 45 minutes. That’s Mickey Harte saying ‘this lad is on it and I’m going to look after him,” said Parkinson.
Matty Forde meanwhile, was impressed with his score-taking from distance.
“He scored the three points in six, seven minutes and that finished the game at the end of the first half. He was coming onto the ball from deep, breaking the lines and popping it over the bar. Normally he plays in alongside McShane but he was deeper this time. You’re probably right, Mickey is trying to mind him and he’s guaranteed his 15 or his 13 jersey for next weekend…”
You can listen to the rest of Monday’s GAA Hour Show live here.
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