For generations of Carrickmore gaels, success was a way of life, a right of passage for those who wore the green and gold.
And a giant of Tyrone football is stirring once again.
No club has won more championship titles, but the O’Neill Cup has not visited Pairc Colmcille since 2005.
That was the last time any team in the Red Hand county successfully defended the title, and in the meantime, eight different clubs have tasted success.
Carmen have come close, just missing out on a second ever three-in-a-row in 2006 when they lost out to fierce rivals Errigal Ciaran after a replay in the decider.
“The club has been doing a lot of work in to try and get back to that holy grail and get a county title,” said Noel Hurson, whose joint management partnership with Ryan Daly is about to enter its third season.
“We haven’t won one since 2005, and the goal will be to work towards that.
“It’s tough in Tyrone, there’s not many clubs that put them back-to-back.
“We would want to be up there with the best in Tyrone again, competing for that prize.”
An Under 21 Championship success in 2019 provided a further nudge in the right direction for a senior squad growing in quality and depth.
Hurson and Daly were the architects of that under-age breakthrough, and have already begun the process of integrating several of those young players into the senior set-up.
“When myself and Ryan came in in 2019, there was a lot of good work done by the club, and we were involved, along with other members of the club, in that work.
“The players stepped up in that U21 Championship and we would like to bring a few of those players through from the last couple of years.
“There are some of the young lads that have made the breakthrough, but breaking into the senior team doesn’t mean that you’re an experienced player.
“They have a lot of development to do, and we would work a lot on the development of those players to try and get them to become more prominent senior players.
“Some of them broke through last year, and we want them to be able to hold on to that jersey.”
The luck of the draw was far from kind in last year’s senior championship, and despite a quality display, Carrickmore made an early exit following a terrific tussle with an excellent Killyclogher side.
There were enough encouraging signs in that Healy Park clash, and in Division One league action, that the At Colmcilles are heading in the right direction.
“Killyclogher is a phenomenal side, they have been at the top in Tyrone for some time, and doing a lot of work.
“Teams, including Carrickmore, understand that there’s a lot of work to be done.
“We know we have a lot of work to do to get that prize, and we have to keep working towards that.
“To get the best out of players is the ultimate challenge, but we are in difficult circumstances at the moment, with lads sitting out, not playing for five months.”
A shift towards a more attacking strategy has underpinned the progress of a team blessed with creativity and finishing power.
But Hurson believes that transition is part of a general movement by most clubs away from a dependence on defensive resilience.
“Tyrone football in general had gone defensive over a period of time, but I think a lot of clubs are changing their approach.
“And certainly we have gone for that attacking drive. You can see that all over Tyrone, and young players have to adapt to that.”
The history of Tyrone football is peppered with gripping accounts of famous last-gasp victories by Carrickmore teams that clung to belief and to the finest shreds of hope right until the final whistle.
That never-say-die attitude has been less evident in recent years, but it’s a quality that a new generation of footballers believe they can tap in to.
“The tradition is there. We showed it against Dungannon last year, when they thought they had us buried, but the lads rallied round in the last ten of fifteen minutes and put it to them, and we came out of it with a draw.
“The fight is always there, we don’t lose it, it’s about bringing that out every Sunday, that’s what you want to achieve.”
Representation in the Tyrone squad has also been renewed, with call-ups for the Munroe cousins, Jonny and Cormac.
It’s a recall for Jonny following a spell in Australia, and for Cormac, a much anticipated recognition of his outstanding contribution to Tyrone’s
Successive Ulster U20 Championship tiles as he starred at full-back in 2019 and 2020.
“Jonny was there before and Cormac has stepped up to the plate now.
“It’s the aim of young lads to wear the county jersey, and we would be doing a lot of work on bringing young players through so that they can achieve that.
“Jonny decided at the time that he wanted to spread the wings, and we said that it would be great for him to do that.
“But he’s back and he’s settled again at home, and hopefully he’ll get settled into the county set-up.”
Hurson is hoping that the GAA proceeds with its plan to run the inter-county campaign as the first part of a split season model.
He feels club players need longer to prepare for a return to play, and will benefit from an extended programme of collective training.
“With the county going first, it gives the club players a bit of time.
“I think the county players can adapt a whole lot quicker, and going out first, they can be ready sooner.
“For club players, I believe that they need that bit of extra time to prepare before the games come around again.
“The players haven’t been on the grass now for five months, and there’s only so much strength and conditioning work you can do.
“That’s why we do what we do. They like to play football, and I believe that the more time they get on the grass the better.
“And it will suit every club to have access to their county players. We have two, but some clubs have three or four. And you want your county players playing in all your games.”
Unable to connect with the players during the continued plan on collective training, a degree of uncertainty surrounds the composition of the 2021 squad.
Availability of a number of players remains unconfirmed, including that of long-serving trio Conor Gormley, Martin Penrose and Mark Donnelly.
All-Ireland winners during Tyrone’s glory days back in the noughties, they have continued to serve the club with distinction.
“I would like to see them back, but we’ll have to wait and see,” said Hurson.
“They bring something that young lads don’t have, and that’s experience.
“You can’t buy experience. You build experience and they have certainly built it over the years.”
He added: “We haven’t seen much of the players, they’re training on their own.
“We’ll have to wait and see if the older players may come back, but we don’t know.
“It’s very hard for an older player to stay at home and train on his own when there’s nothing there to train for.
“That’s tough enough, so we’ll have to give them time to decide if they feel they can come back.
“Conor and Martin and Mark have been a big asset to Carrickmore for the last number of years.”
