All-Ireland SFC Final/The Mayo management team: It is of little surprise John Maughan and Liam McHale remain at the epicentre of Mayo's latest quest for an All-Ireland. They share more than deep articulation. McHale was perhaps the key Mayo footballer for over a decade, from his arrival as a teenager in 1985 to the bittersweet September against Meath in 1996.

And Maughan is his county's faith healer. Along with George Golden, they are in the second of a three-year management term. That they fashioned a team capable of mounting an All-Ireland challenge seemed to have come out of the blue. Maughan and McHale have referred to lonely drives home after some chafing league lessons - particularly against Sunday's opposition in Killarney - but they each had a feeling that, in the summer, their group might just come together.

At a function after the New York game, Maughan stated publicly he felt this particular group of Mayo footballers was special. Even before the return of the team's key players, McHale had the same feeling.

"They are very ambitious," he says. "That is obvious. They are talented. That is critical if you want to win games in the summer. They are all good friends and there is a great mix between young and old - that happened really quickly and the Catskills brought us on a lot. But even in Killarney when we were down getting our asses kicked there was a good morale.

"We always felt something would happen - there is a good rapport between players and management, it is more of a friendship thing than a dictatorship. And there is a good atmosphere. People are learning all the time, both us and them."

The evolution of the Mayo team from a shaky if promising bunch of league freshmen to an exciting hybrid of veterans from the not-quite-golden age of 1996/'97, the born-again Ciarán McDonald and basketball convert Ronan McGarrity has been one of the chief fascinations about Mayo. Nobody predicted the chemistry, almost until the eve of the Galway game, by which time there was a thunderously confident mood in the county. It was a stark turnaround from the build-up to the visit to New York, when doomsayers were murmuring about a Mayo embarrassment.

"That is how poor our perceived form was," Maughan remembers. "But we felt then there was a mood about the camp, that the jigsaw was nearly complete and we all had this gut instinct. Coming back from our week, we felt we would make the effort to get Ciarán involved and there was a good chance of that. So we were excited about things coming home."

In part, this summer has exhibited supreme Mayo characteristics. At their best they play beautiful football. As yet, there has been no negative. The Fermanagh series saw them at their most vulnerable but the northern musketeers troubled every single county they met. The ultimate result was that Mayo won a semi-final they might have lost. That is one of the reasons behind the argument this Mayo team is "different" than its predecessors. When Maughan thinks back to the build-up to the county's last All-Ireland finals, it is to a very different scene.

"Well, without going into those finals, I felt there was a number of mistakes. That famous joke that if John Maughan gets a puncture, he changes four tyres. But back then, due credit has not been given to those players. We fell over the line playing Division Three football by a single point and went into an National League semi-final only to be destroyed by Derry. And, in fact, we found them so good we went up to Celtic Park to learn more lessons from them.

"But in 1996 we found ourselves winning a Connacht title against Galway and then we beat a Kerry team that were favourites and maybe they took their eye of the ball. And we went into a final against Meath and history, we know we should have won that game.

"It is easy to point back - in hindsight, quite clearly there were a few players that maybe under-performed and maybe management on the line under-performed. But you get older and a bit wiser and this year we were able to delegate. Any mistakes I might make the boys will correct me and, believe me, when I do step out of line they let me know."

If there is a reflective note to Maughan's tone, it is because he admits he is no longer as consumed with the game as he once was. He is enjoying having time to actually think and consider ahead. McHale agrees Maughan is a more chilled individual than the man who ran him into the ground in the mid 1990s.

"Definitely, no question" he grins.

"I'll tell you, I would love to be playing now. The whole scene has changed. The idea of all those games coming at you is appealing. There is more ball work at the moment whereas before with John we concentrated probably a lot on stamina and power running. We were just saying that we haven't trained hard since the Roscommon game because we have not been able to due to games. That is much more appealing than suffering what John put me through. In 1996 though, there were four or five weeks between matches and the choice was to take time off or train hard."

Maughan interrupts with a grin: "You must remember that . . . emmh . . . lifestyles were different back then as well. We would have to run some of these boys for a week just to sweat the beer out of them. Well, maybe not Liam McHale. But it is true that players are more conscious now."

When Maughan recalls his own state of being at this stage in 1997, he was worn out and anxious. Now, he takes a more fatalistic approach towards things. All year long, he has preached that there are no certainties in the game. He also believes the reaction of the Mayo public is more reasoned and less driven by pure optimism - possibly as a consequence of what happened last time round.

"There is no daftness now. People have had to live through those disappointments and now it all feels nice and calm. Like, we are in year two of a three-year plan and things are going well but it can all fall apart. If we go up and get annihilated by Kerry, people may be calling for our heads on the block."

He delivers this with a laugh but experience suggests All-Ireland final euphoria can be generally followed by Monday morning west of Ireland gallows humour. The thing is, though, this year's team has a different feel to it. McHale is torn between his enjoyment of coaching and the athlete's desire to be out there on the field.

"If the boys gave me the call, I would give it a go. But look, this is my role now. To be involved in a Mayo team that won an All-Ireland would be a dream come through. I played for 13 years and wasn't able to do that, this would be the next best thing."

And 13 must be somebody's lucky number.