SAM 96 MO has become the new registration in Mayo. It is on the back of every second car. The county is in the grip of a raging All Ireland fever and if Sam Maguire returns to Mayo after an absence of 45 years, there is every chance that life as we know it will never to be same in the county for a week or two anyway.
The sign outside Ballaghadereen, Mayo's final frontier to the cast, in 89 said Last man out - turn off the lights, this time it could well be Will the first man home milk the cows. It seems all of Mayo are going to this final.
However, where they are going to get tickets is anybody's guess. A lot of people around the country, and indeed abroad, discovered this week for the first time that they have relations and friends in Mayo.
No county has been through as much trauma in such a short few years when manager after manager filed through - Liam O'Neill, John O'Mahony, Brian McDonald, Jack O'Shea, Anthony Egan and now John Maughan. Six in ten years.
The county is awash in a sea of green and red waiting to proclaim its rebirth as a footballing power. Even a new anthem, The Mayo Sam Ba, has been recorded.
From the top of the fire station in Castlebar to Telecom masts around the county, some people have literally gone to great heights to show off the red and green of the county.
One pub in Ballina has been painted the appropriate colours for the occasion.
The local paper in Westport was not impressed by the town's failure to show off its colours, asking was it because they had no player on the county team, and pointing out that all of Mayo should be behind the team.
That was a week ago. Since then Mayo's tourism capital has been painted red and green. It was an oversight due to an extended tourist season and a hot September was one explanation. You can't turn on a local radio or take up any of the three local papers without coming across Mayo and Sam being inextricably linked.
The supporters will be well informed. All three papers the Connacht Telegraph. Western People and Mayo News - are marking the occasion with special colour supplements.
There is not only the scent of an All Ireland in Mayo, there is a great smell of money in the air with the flag, banner and ribbon merchant rolling it in. One local businessman in Castlebar has set up an exclusive Mayo shop. Football has become big business in Mayo.
If ever a footballing desert cried out for rain, it is Mayo - the county shivers from the label "Mayo, God help us". It is a cross they have borne with great fortitude since the days of the Famine. The younger generation never heard of 50 and 51 when Mayo last won the All Ireland. This writer has never seen a Mayoman lift the Sam Maguire Cup.
The amazing thing about this Mayo team is that nobody knows them. It is a team without heroes. No Willie Joe Padden or TJ Kilgallen. No hype. All that has changed. Feet are being kept on the ground. Apart from Dermot Flanagan, Ray Dempsey and Liam McHale, this is a totally new Mayo model and it is a totally different regime. Gone are the days of the steak and chips after the match, the cold milk and sandwiches after the training. Now they are eating high fibre food.
Pasta has replaced steak. Bananas instead of the Kerr's Pinks. A high fibre diet and a high fibre team. It's about converting calories into energy, not undoing all the training by loading up with fat.
Gone, too, are the pints. Particularly the ones that tended to come after winning a game and occasionally stretched well into the following weekend.
So who, or what, has transformed a county that was picking stones in division three of the league last winter? This is a county where grown men have been known to almost throw their pint at the television when they saw the experts telling them that they just don't have it when it comes to the crunch.
A county where you would have no problem in finding an assassin for Liam Hayes. And that's not because he is a Meathman, but because he was blamed for Mayo's inferiority complex. Journalists were always targets for Mayo's frustrations.
A county where out of sheer frustration one local paper carried a blank page in disgust when they lost a Connacht final. Another reporter refused to report when arch rivals Galway humbled his county some years ago.
He won't admit it, but John Maughan is the man. Maughan does not court publicity, but neither is he afraid of it. He is media friendly. A point he proved in the Olympic style press conference held prior to the final. He fielded every question in the house with diplomacy, honesty, clarity and a little humour, which even warmed him to the hearts of some of the tougher backs as local and national press scrambled for corners to interview players in confessional style.
It was obvious, too, from the many interviews that this is a mature side. No rash statements. No cockiness. "Meath will be tough. Great team. Hard as nails. Strong favourites. We'll do our best". That kind of thing. Maughan had them well versed in matters of the media.
While he is very quick to point out that this is not about him, whether he likes it or not, every Mayoman and woman hold Maughan directly responsible for changing the landscape of football in the county.
He not only restored pride in Mayo. To many, he gave the county back its very soul.
Maughan has been quick to stamp out the "Messiah" bit which this scribe assigned to him after he raised the county's self esteem by beating Galway in the Connacht Final.
"Cut out that kind of rubbish," he told me when we spoke prior to the All Ireland semi final.
Maughan learned from his predecessors. He certainly learned from the hype of 89 when Mayo's hopes took off at Knock as they flew to Dublin under the full glare of the public spotlight.
So dazzling was the effect of the cameras in Dublin that a few players were blinded by the light, and Mayo once again left as losers. Worst of all, they believed they were winners.
Mayo touched down at Knock to one of the biggest receptions ever afforded a losing side. Only the Pope attracted more to the place. Thousands turned out to greet their heroes as if they were All Ireland champions.
While the plane touched down on the tarmac, to be greeted by the late county manager and former Mayo footballer Michael O'Malley, it was several months before the players came down to earth. The party lasted for months. The following year they paid the price for their over exuberance by going out in the first round.
It was the beginning of the end for a lot of the old brigade, although Maughan did recall a few. Not for old times sakes. But he needed them to build confidence and bring a certain amount of experience to the side. He found an ideal platform in division three.
Maughan's philosophy is very simple. If you believe you can win, then you will win. Failure is not something the army captain even contemplates. He insists he would not be bringing a team to Croke Park if he did not believe they can win.
He promised Mayo two things when he was appointed manager last winter; pride in the jersey and discipline in the camp. Little did the faithful think he might just throw in an All Ireland as well.
Yes, Sam 96 could be officially registered around 4.55 on Sunday evening if Noel Connelly retraces the steps taken by Sean Flanagan in 1951. Mayo have lived in the shadow of the past for too long. Mayo believes that the army captain can lead his soldiers of destiny out of the shadow that the Hogan Stand has cast over the county for all of 45 years.
