For Ger Farragher, all that remains from 2005 is disappointment. It's the mortar that holds last season's memories together. Every statement he makes about his first full year as a Galway senior is qualified by the fact that his team won zip; they carried nothing from Croke Park besides a little experience for the journey that lies ahead.

Consider Farragher's contribution to the championship last year then think about this: How many others would find satisfaction retelling tales of a debut year that finished with the title of Ireland's top scorer? How many more would amble through winter, warm in the knowledge they had helped restore pride to their county?

Plenty would but Farragher refuses to dwell on such things. They're trivialities. In his head he remembers too clearly the walk to the dressing room after Sean Og's speech and the sense of failure that came with knowing Liam McCarthy was returning south. Cork took the prize and everything else was just a sideshow.

Since the days when his talents were first recognised around Castlegar, senior success was all that mattered to Ger Farragher.

The sages of his club watched the youngster move through the juvenile ranks and saw him transform from a kid with promise into a hurler of pure ability.

All the while though, the kid would listen to the whispers that told him underage success was glorious in its own right but a hurler with his gifts could only be judged on what he could produce at senior level.

Then, five years ago the whispers he had been hearing were finally confirmed. He was on the cusp of a phenomenal record: one game away from claiming his third All Ireland minor medal. It was the week before the final and a wave of commotion was washing over Galway. The senior hurlers had made it to September, so too had the senior footballers and earnest talk of a treble spilled across the county. He spoke to a journalist that week and answered those questions about the treble that loomed for the county and for himself.

As the interview was finishing, he was fired a question he hadn't expected. Somehow, this journalist didn't know exactly who the Galway minors were playing that Sunday.

"That question told me a lot", says Farragher. "This fellow didn't even know who we were up against and him a Galway man as well. In your own mind you'd be thinking everyone is interested in the minors, but that's not the way it is. I couldn't believe I had to tell him we were playing Cork. That he didn't know who we were up against really showed it's all about seniors when it comes to hurling, that's where you have to do it, that's where the real focus is."

The third minor medal never came to pass but the following year, 2002, Farragher was making his way towards the bigger stage.

Seven minutes remained in a tight All Ireland quarter-final against Clare and he was sprung from the bench for his first breath of championship air.

With the game about to die he clipped over a crucial point that looked like securing Galway a draw. His people breathed easier. Galway were still alive and the minor who had shone for three years was making the jump to senior.

But Clare had other ideas.

Colin Lynch wedged a late, late point and Clare progressed.

And that was it. Game over.

Farragher and the seniors went in different directions.

Time passed and until last year the world wondered what had happened to the Galway minor from Castlegar.

"I just found it hard to go from minor to senior. I wasn't involved with the Galway seniors after 2002 and I suppose things just weren't going well for me at that stage. It didn't seem to be my time and I wasn't getting the breaks. There's a lot of talent in Galway and I don't know why but we seem to find it hard to make the step from minor and under-21 to senior."

Shortly after Farragher won his first minor medal he was taken through the national schools of his own parish with the cup. He had fellow clubman and All Ireland winning captain Joe Connolly as a chauffeur. Between stops they talked hurling and Galway and Croke Park and in those conversations Connolly sensed future greatness in the 16 year old.

"You could see back then he was ready to give hurling the dedication it required, " says Connolly. "He told me that he'd never drink, he'd never smoke. He wanted to be a hurler and that's the way it is now. He's worked hard at the game and it's beginning to pay off. Last week we played Mullagh in the championship and Ger played as well as I've ever seen in that game. He finished with 1-13. It was sublime. This year he knows things will be different for Galway, though. With the performances he put in last year two men might watch him and he's aware of that. Once you raise your head above the parapet like Ger has done other things follow. But he's mature, he'll be prepared."

Though Galway have been training four times a week all year and though Castlegar are in the middle of a championship campaign, Farragher still can't get enough.

Most days he'll throw a hurley and some sliotars into his van and on break from work as a carpenter, he'll puck about for a while with the apprentice carpenter, another young Castlegar hurler. It's all consuming.

Sometimes before and other times after a Galway training session Farragher will grab a bag of sliotars and whip free after free towards the goalposts in Athenry. He'll practice 65s, he'll take sideline cuts. He spends half an hour each evening perfecting a craft he hopes to put to use later this summer and these are the extra miles he's prepared to go.

"No matter how well you played before, you've got to be on your toes. Conor Hayes [Galway manager] tried out different lads in the challenge games we've played recently and he's brought in new lads in the league so it's very easy to lose your place. The league mightn't have gone to plan but the squad is stronger and nobody is going to be selected based on how they played last year."

At 23 the years stretch ahead and days for glory will come again. If anything, the sense of excitement and the ultimate feeling of loss from last year will propel Farragher through the campaign to come. Two minor medals are tucked away at home; to have the senior equivalent is what counts. There lies the real recognition that the transformation from juvenile star to senior hurler is complete. That's the standard he has set his talents against.

"Losing a final is hard to forget. Cork were that bit cuter on the day, but at least we know what's required to win an All Ireland now and it won't be easy. The new structure helped us last year, we got a few games under the belt and the Limerick game in particular was of benefit.

They came back hard at us that day and normally Galway teams would have wilted under that pressure. We didn't throw in the towel though.

There was a good feeling in the squad all year, good motivation. Nobody was giving us a chance. Galway were seen as a team that could be pushed aside and we knew what we had to do to change that. We dug as deep as we could and got close but in the end, we won nothing."

The date etched in the head of the country's top marksman is 17 June; the first day of Galway's championship was already on his mind on that lonely journey to the dressing room last September. On those evenings in Athenry with the bag of sliotars by his side, there's comfort in knowing the big stage is edging ever closer.