Mickey Harte says Tyrone would not be “too downheartened” to find themselves in the SFC qualifiers next summer but says a return to the All-Ireland final must be the group’s priority.

The Red Hands reached their first Sam Maguire Cup decider in an even decade this past September and, with his team’s new campaign set to start against Derry in the McKenna Cup this Thursday night, Harte says the ambition for 2019 is to book a return to the same stage and go one better than this year’s defeat to Dublin.

“That’s our aspiration now, to get back there. If we want to use the experience of last year’s final, then you can only use it if you get back to the final,” he is quoted saying to The Irish News.

“I’m not saying it won’t be of some use to us as we try to progress through the championship, but that’s a long way off, that’s looking very far ahead, but we have to have that aspiration that we set out.

“We certainly are aiming high, but that does not dismiss the fact that we have a lot of very difficult steps to take to get there and, as we found last year, we found ourselves in the first round of the qualifiers after the first round of the Ulster championship, the same thing could happen to us again.

“But I think we’re a resilient enough side now, we have spent enough time in the qualifiers not to be too downheartened if we find ourselves in the qualifiers.”

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