While days at the beach, ice creams and AFLW football are currently ruling the roost, the 2022 AFL season is fast approaching.
And with the first set of pre-season practice matches set to take place in a month's time, the sole goal of the many names currently sweating it out at clubland has just entered their horizon.
Although only eight teams will eventually play finals before a single side claims the cup in September, there are a plethora of headlines that are set to be raised across the course of the marathon campaign.
As the recommencement of the season's roller coaster is yet to begin after coming to halt in Perth last year, it may seem both presumptuous and foolhardy to try and write our leads so far in advance.
However, it hasn't stopped us from giving it our best shot.
So, before the Sherrin hits the middle of the Melbourne Cricket Ground to set the latest AFL schedule in motion, we gazed into our crystal ball to provide you with the 10 headlines you are sure to read before the season's final siren.
6. Tigers claw back into eightย
To say that Richmond's defence of their 2020 premiership didn't go to plan is an understatement of Jim Lovell proportions.
Although the Tigers' 2021 rough ride home last season saw them fail to play finals for the first time since 2016, the factors behind the Punt Roader's slide were apparent for all to see.
With the likes of Martin, Cotchin, Edwards, Lambert, Nankervis, Broad, Vlastuin, Prestia, Lynch and Balta all unable to complete full campaigns, cynics will see 2021 as an act of foreshadowing.
But with each an every member of this hampered class set to return in 2022, as well as the fact that a vast majority of Damien Hardwick's cubs all saw senior action in their absence, a balanced, hungry and refreshed Richmond side is set to attack this season.
While fans of other creeds delighted in the fact that the Tigers' hiccup saw them unable to win a fourth cup in five years, any that hold that belief that their era is over are only deluding themselves.
