National Football League: There is the sound of muffled laughter when you ask Paul Durcan exactly when it was he became a Sligo player. Then there is a silence. "Well," he says, finally. "It wasn't today or yesterday."

That much you knew. He is not the Peter Pan of the Sligo team but rather its perennial father figure, the indomitable figure at the centre of the field, a column of solid oak throughout the years of Sligo's soaring and dipping fortunes. As manager Peter Ford puts it: "A Sligo team without Paul Durcan would be unimaginable."

It comes as something of a surprise therefore to establish that the Curry man made his championship debut in 1992. A decade of service definitely establishes him as a soldier of some decoration but as yet, he hardly toils alone. Through the league and championship, he can bank on regular encounters with players who began their careers in the same distant season as he, full of bright running and naivety.

Durcan found that summer's crushing lessons relieved him of his early optimism double fast. In 1992, Sligo lost a Connacht semi-final to Mayo by 0-10 to 1-11 and thus began a frustrating series of key losses.

In recent years, their two blackest Sundays were inflicted upon them by Galway; last year's flat Connacht final and the 1999 drubbing in Markievicz Park, a stunning and inexplicable collapse that ushered the end of Mickey Moran's encouraging and well respected reign. That dressing-room was as dark as Durcan has ever known.

"It was a huge kick in the teeth for Sligo football. Even then, I felt I was getting on at the time and I suppose I questioned if I wanted to keep going. We had suffered a fair few bad defeats over the years but that was definitely the worst."

Sligo were quietly fancied to trouble the All-Ireland champions that day. They were modern in the best possible sense; young with a backbone of experience, physically primed and with sharp, scoring forwards. Some deep and elemental aspect of the team psyche just fled Sligo at the vital hour and viewing their distress was not pleasant.

For the players, the most galling aspect was the manner in which it betrayed Moran's patient work in the county and all of the surviving players who trained under the Derry man emphasise his quality. But that day the quality was maroon only. Galway's exhibition was not vindictive but it looked as if they were scoring at will.

The question afterwards centred on just how far back in time the impact of that game would boot Sligo. Back to the lows of 1994, when they exited the championship to Mayo on a scoreline of 1-5 to 2-18? Certainly it brought them no closer to the joys of 1975, Sligo's significant and ever-retreating reference year, when the county last captured a Connacht title.

The refusal to drop into that chasm makes Sligo's success in the subsequent years all the more valuable. Peter Ford's arrival was a tonic and coincided with an infusion of youngsters from a new generation not really interested in Sligo's tradition of second or third best.

"When I started out we were playing Division Three or Four and naturally that affected our approach to the game," says Durcan. "But these lads were coming in and playing the likes of Derry or Meath and counties like that and expecting to do well. That attitude gives a squad a lift. In addition, Peter came from a tradition of having won Connacht championships and underage All-Irelands and played in a number of All-Irelands. That made a difference."

Ford is among the brightest of the young batch of intercounty managers who have appeared in the last couple of years. After last July's wet and miserable Connacht final, with its all-too-predictable conclusion, he wasted no time in wrapping his team on the knuckles for its tame, inhibited approach.

"We were maybe all a bit too cautious, afraid of taking the game on and really giving it a go," Durcan says.

"It was disappointing because the opportunity to win a Connacht championship was there and it is something we desperately want. Maybe that is the difference about the qualifying system, where we seem to be able to express ourselves more freely. You are at that stage when there is literally nothing to lose."

SLIGO have been one of the great stories of the revolutionary system, enjoying a famous win against Kildare in Croke Park two years ago and then topping that with a memorable and thrilling comeback against Tyrone at the peak of this year's championship. It was the perfect response to their dismal Connacht final experience.

Eamonn O'Hara was rightly identified as the inspiration behind that victory but Durcan's role was as subtle as it was massive. He fits the traditional midfield mould, clean and authoritative around his own house, a definitive presence.

"He is a leader," Ford says simply. "That's how it has always been. On the field, he is our strong man while Eamonn does most of the running. He doesn't speak before every match but when he does have something to say, it carries a lot of weight among the players."

At half-time against Tyrone, Sligo trailed by six points but played with beautiful and controlled fury in the second half, isolating Peter Canavan and running at Tyrone in waves. Durcan fired a point in a crucial period of what was probably the most enjoyable afternoon he has had in a Sligo shirt.

SLIGO maintained their form against Armagh, running against the Ulster champions' defence in unorthodox patterns that bewildered the eventual All-Ireland champions. The first game finished level and only two points separated the teams in the replay but what Armagh achieved is now history while Sligo's history remains the same. So what is the difference between the counties?

"Well, Armagh won an awful lot of games by a single point last year, which speaks volumes about them," Durcan says.

"I suppose seeing them going on to win the All-Ireland certainly gives us something to aim for this year. It is encouraging to see that we can compete and challenge the top teams now and at the beginning of the championship, every team sets out with the ultimate goal of winning that. But for us, that is still a vague aim and our immediate goal is to see what we can do in Connacht."

For Durcan, that means another year of repetition. He works in Dublin as a prison officer and has become accustomed to a bit of slagging from the inmates now that Sligo have begun appearing on television on a more regular basis. The thought of another season of slogging it out in the Phoenix Park with Sligo's other city-based players was not appealing but last year's experiences compelled him to "hang in there" for another year.

Sligo's first home National League appearance is against Kildare tomorrow. Last year, they took the points after Kildare played an illegal substitute in a close and physical encounter that finished with a balanced scoreline.

"Well, I don't think there's any danger of too many players tomorrow. They were unlucky last year. Ah, Kildare are like us, they are coming looking for some points. It's that early part of the season when teams are still trying to get going. It takes a bit of time."

And Durcan knows. Round 11 and the big man is still standing.