Keith Duggan on the speculation John O'Mahony may accept the task of managing Mayo

As with all great productions, the show must go on in Mayo. Tomorrow, the vanquished All-Ireland finalist county reach the high point of their domestic season. As ever, the club football final in Mayo will generate intense interest and high-quality fare, with CiaráMcDonald leading Crossmolina on another quest for national glory. Against that, Ballaghaderreen are chasing a first senior championship since 1972.

As ever, the intrigue and permutations of the Mayo senior football post - which surely has in the past six months ousted even the post of Taoiseach as the most analysed and discussed office on this island - serve as a backdrop to the day. John O'Mahony is acting as a selector for Ballaghaderreen, his home club. And ever since the painful and very public departure of Mickey Moran and John Morrison from Mayo posts, there has been a general clamouring for the mercurial O'Mahony to have another stab at leading his own county for another tilt.

O'Mahony confirmed to this newspaper he will be meeting chairman James Waldron and other county board officials on a date yet to be fixed, probably shortly after tomorrow's final. However, he was uncomfortable at the suggestion the meeting should indicate his return to the Mayo post is a fait accompli.

There has been plenty of loose speculation around the county that accepting the Mayo post would work in harmony with the canvassing and local work in which O'Mahony will be immersed in the run-up to next general election, when he will stand for Dáil Éireann on the Fine Gael ticket. The parallel is easily drawn but as he pointed out earlier this week, it is not as simple as it might seem.

"It was different when I was teaching, which meant working at a full-time job until four o'clock and then starting what often felt like another full-time job at five o'clock. All I would say is that whatever I do, I like to give it my fullest commitment. And so there is a lot to consider."

It would be a precarious time for O'Mahony to return to a post, although his track record with Mayo (1983 under-21 All-Ireland championship), Leitrim (1994 Connacht champions for the first time since 1927) and with Galway (All-Ireland champions 1998 and 2001) would do much do restore the fragile and complex ego that haunts Mayo football.

Argument rages over whether Mayo over-achieved in reaching the All-Ireland final under the Northern men this year. It is a popular theory, but also probably a lazy one. Equally, the management and, to a lesser extent, the players, have been pilloried for the manner of the loss to Kerry.

But the gulf on the scoreboard meant many leaped to the swift assumption that Mayo were, in the heat of battle, light years away from being a genuine All-Ireland team like Kerry. Again, though, such a conclusion discounts the fact Mayo dispatched Galway, Laois and Dublin - three heavyweights - on their way there. And it overlooks the fact Mayo's performance - two points and three goals scored in the first half - was the freakish element of that game. Kerry turned up and did the business, probably stunned they were allowed to do it so freely.

Something happened Mayo in that All-Ireland final, just as it did in 2004, but that does not mean disaster is pre-ordained for them. For O'Mahony, who has never hidden his affection for Mayo, there must be a realisation if he is to lead Mayo again, next season is the year, with the possibility of keeping the veteran rearguard in place and of channelling the hurt and disillusionment of last September into a positive energetic force.

For whatever about the pressures of participating in what is bound to be a highly-charged election, the expectation bearing down on him from Mayo football folk would be absolute. With every managerial casualty, O'Mahony's name has been held up as the only way forward.

Already, it has been suggested the Mayo board unofficially cut a deal with O'Mahony at some point during the summer and that the Moran-Morrison alliance threatened to spoil it by advancing to the All-Ireland final, a wild and unsubstantiated theory that highlights that, even when things are going well in Mayo, there is an undercurrent of unrest.

It is well known players would be keen on playing under O'Mahony but other high-profile names have cropped up. Liam McHale, who served as a selector under John Maughan for the 2004 All-Ireland final, has made known his interest in the post and over the past few days, there has been a school of thought that David Brady, who retired after this year's final following a storming and charismatic comeback summer, may allow his name go forward.

Efforts to contact Brady yesterday were unsuccessful. His leadership potential was highly evident all this summer but whether the board would be willing to run with someone so young is debatable. Brady is popular with the players, with Conor Mortimer saying the Ballina veteran "is a good voice in Mayo and well respected by the people of Mayo".

Brady and Mortimer played under O'Mahony in the interprovincial final in Boston last weekend. At that point, the county board had yet to announce their intention to approach O'Mahony.

It remains to be seen what will emanate from the conversation but given the public enthusiasm for the appointment, it seemed unavoidable that both parties should at least sit down and discuss it.

It would represent a huge undertaking for O'Mahony, who walked away with an immense reputation. Although he is believed to have told the Galway players whom he managed he would find it difficult to coach against them, it is fair to say the current Galway panel has radically changed under Peter Ford.

If he does take the job, then it will be with a view to doing his damnedest to end what has become the most famous and agonising saga in Irish sport.