Jimmy White is now preserved, presumably forever, in the mythology of snooker as the most talented player never to win the World Championship. Each successive final failure during the 1990s only added to the overbearing image of a man who under-achieved when it came to winning the most prestigious honour in his sport.

This Sunday, Tyrone's Peter Canavan will once again begin his personal quest not to be cast in a similar role, that of the most gifted Gaelic footballer of his generation not to win a senior All-Ireland medal. Over the last decade Canavan's competitors for this most dubious of accolades have fallen by the wayside.

Anthony Tohill has his medal tucked away in his back pocket. So too do Mickey Linden, Maurice Fitzgerald and Trevor Giles. If this goes on for much longer Canavan is likely to be in a class of one, the Jimmy White of Gaelic football. Nobody, and especially not a man as proud and as stubborn as Peter Canavan, wants to be stalked by those demons.

Already he has outlasted most of his contemporaries on the Tyrone under-21 teams of 1991 and 1992. Their All-Ireland titles, and in particular the imperious 20-point destruction of Kerry in 1991, suggested the onset of sustained period laced with achievement. Canavan captained both sides and was already marked out for greatness.

Ten years later, Canavan is now 30 and the elusive breakthrough by a senior Tyrone side has not yet become a reality. Team managers and a complete generation of players have come and gone and all the while Canavan remains as the heartbeat of the Tyrone team. In the years after 1992 the failure to translate under-21 superiority into senior dominance was put down to maturity and development and the received wisdom that once the youngsters filled out Ulster and All-Ireland glory would fall at Tyrone feet.

It was around this time that one of the criticisms which now hover around Tyrone - that they field players in key positions who are simply too small for the rigours of inter-county football - gained currency.

By mid-decade Tyrone had begun to generate some momentum. An Ulster final defeat in 1994 to the eventual All-Ireland champions Down was an indication of progress and in Clones the following year Tyrone appeared to come of age. Right through the 1990s Derry had dogged their path and had increasingly become the benchmark by which any Tyrone progress was to be judged.

But in the 1995 Ulster semi-final Tyrone - inspired by Peter Canavan - beat Derry despite playing the entire second half with just 13 players. Victory over their neighbours and rivals had a sweet enough taste. But they manner in which they won added further piquancy. In Canavan Tyrone had the one player who truly unnerved Derry.

One point in particular will live long in the Tyrone collective memory. Canavan's forward movement was blocked around the 21-metre line and he went to ground. But such was his athleticism he simply bounced back off his left knee, turned and screwed the ball over with his right. A player at the peak of his physical and mental game, the Canavan of this vintage was all but untouchable.

His force of will and spirit carried Tyrone through a nervous All-Ireland semi-final against Galway. Gary Fahy had arrived into the game as a vaunted full back and departed all but broken as Canavan propelled Tyrone into an All-Ireland final against Dublin. Come September Canavan was once again peerless in the final but a motif was beginning to emerge as those around him struggled to come even close to his level of performance.

HAD Tyrone had one other scoring forward they would have beaten Dublin that day but it was becoming increasingly clear that for long periods of time Canavan was operating on a different, elevated plane. Enough momentum had been generated to squeeze out another Ulster title in 1996 but the entire operation came to a shuddering halt in the All-Ireland semi-final against Meath.

Seemingly unprepared for the challenge that lay in store, Tyrone were trampled on both physically and mentally. Battered and scarred, they reached a definite turn in the road on that afternoon in Croke Park. Canavan has conceded since that he took over a year to recover, but for many the comprehensive nature of that defeat brought a swift end to their inter-county careers.

Canavan though struggled on and there have been times since when he has been visibly frustrated by the inability of those around him either to match the extent of his commitment or even come close to his level of accomplishment. Injuries, too, have come calling with increasingly regularity. Canavan's wiry frame has now been subjected to over 10 years of club and inter-county punishment. This year is the first in two or three that he can profess to be free of any significant injury.

Why, then, has he kept going? His status as one of the best forwards of his generation is all but assured and the easy thing would have been to step back and watch the legend grow before one or two tired or ineffectual championship performances take away some of the sheen. But as those who have come into contact with Canavan will testify, there is a cussedness deep inside him that keeps him wondering if he might not be able to hang around long enough to be part of that first Tyrone All-Ireland.

The grafting on to the current team of a new crop of underage players, flushed with All-Ireland minor and under-21 successes, has allowed Canavan and Tyrone to keep dreaming. A side effect of the reworking of the side has been the suggestion that he may no longer need to be the exposed focal point of the forward line. Whether this works to the advantage of Canavan and Tyrone over the summer to come remains to be seen. But a county expects. Again.