Three minutes. Of all the hours and years that Ray Silke has been a player, these few moments will stay. Not because he did anything special but merely because he was out there.

"One of the things I remember about 1998 was that some of the substitutes were a bit disappointed that they went through the campaign without playing at all. So at least, by getting on for those last few minutes against Roscommon this year means something. It was a bad day for Galway, we were beaten but at the very least, if we win this All-Ireland, I can feel I did that much, that I came on in anger, as the saying goes."

Gaelic games have no place for sentiment. Silke's place in Galway football history is assured. But here in Tuam, on one of the pre-All-Ireland public sessions that Galway have become accustomed to, Silke is standing on the edges. "Time to get off this boat," he deadpans. "Yesterday's man."

There is an image of Silke that stays. It was on All-Ireland final day in 1998 and the teams were beginning the solemn and slow pre-game parade. This was one of the last great days of the old Hogan Stand and those watching from that vantage point could not but notice Silke, the captain, spying someone in the crowd and offering a jaunty thumbs-up. Many people subsequently said that it was precisely then they felt Galway were going to win.

Silke was everywhere then - here winning a club title with Corofin, there captaining Galway and in between emerging as about the most interesting gaelic football player in the country.

"The thing about that time - and I suppose it is reflective of life - is that it seems like yesterday. But three years have elapsed since. It's not something I dwell on but still, the time has flown by. But that's the way, you have your day in the sun and then the focus moves on. And there comes a time when you have nothing more to contribute and then it's time to get off the bus. I suppose I'm fairly close to that decision."

So you wonder why he still bothers, on a wintry night with the bright glare of the television cameras away down the far end of the field. He has scaled the heights, after all, and he is not the type to hanker after the roar of the crowd. When football finishes, Ray Silke will not define himself as a former footballer.

"In '98 ," he recalls, "I spoke a lot about the importance of the non-togging members on the panel - there were six guys. Now that I am not getting my place, I think it would be hypocritical of me to consider my role unimportant. The easiest thing in the world would be to jack it in, to say 'this is crap'.

"I remember having a conversation with Padraig Joyce and he was reckoning the day he couldn't make it, he'd be gone. And I was saying 'yeah, but for you Padraig, that'll be another eight or 10 years because you are that talented'. But you play until you feel you are not contributing."

Last year, Silke's role appeared to have diminished greatly but come the championship, he was back in the first 15 and as Galway rolled through, he had emerged as their blue-chip defender, enjoying an All Star kind of season. Until.

"Yeah, until a certain, ehhh, Mike Frank Russell, I think it was - I never caught up with him to find out his name. Look, it happened. I'm around long enough to know when things are going badly and I was caught. Pace, you know. You won't survive on the wings without it. Pace hurts, like, and he had it. That was that. You don't set out to play badly in front of 68,000 people but sometimes it happens."

The wry-eyed logic in Silke leaves him sanguine about the change in his role but the ego, the inevitable ego that all athletes possess, continues to whisper, telling him he should still be out there. Silke is a big day man, he lives for them. But he sizes it up and shrugs.

"You continue to train as hard as ever but the thing is, when the guys play on a Sunday, they move on 2 per cent and you move back 2 per cent. And with the team winning seven games on the trot, the chances of change decreases. But you have to take stock. The lads that have come in are doing very well.

"One of the things I take solace from is that in '98, Richie Fahey was a sub and got no time and now he is one of the main men, he is getting his chance. But one of the reasons I stay involved is just to help keep it going, to sustain the continuity."

He will enjoy this weekend irrespective of whether he features. He knows these days are scarce.

"It's a tough game to call. Seβn Boylan is so good - against Kerry, he just built them up, gave Meath the fodder and they just chomped it down. And should they defeat us now, we will just have to say, 'yeah, you are the team'. But I think this is a great opportunity for us, we are coming with less pressure than in other years."

And when it's over, Silke will deliberate and perhaps next January, he simply won't be back.

"That's the way of it. And like Niall Finnegan said in a paper there recently, 'no regrets'."