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.
With the throws of Covid set to sink their claws into a third season, everyone attached to the code will, once again, be forced to remain 'agile and flexible' in 2022.
Still, as other sporting competitions and leagues have proven, there are models that allow for both player safety and the game to go on.
As has been seen in the EPL, NBA and the AFLW, should players test positive for the virus, they will be removed from the team sheet while they isolate from their respective dressing rooms.
Although this will mean that a legion of stars can, and almost certainly will, be forced to the sidelines at stages between March and September, an opportunity for lesser lights and names yet unsighted to fill their voids will be provided.
On the one hand, these absences could momentarily mute the quality of contests, but with views that the AFL's current talent pool of players is too thin, at least an array of new names will be afforded the right to gain experience.
Despite the Eagles and Dockers currently being forced from Western Australia due to border regulations, AFLW governors have been at pains to avoid the need for hubs.
And while the BBL is currently operating in isolation, Gillon McLachlan and company will also hold hope that the need to repeat the bubbles of 2020 can be popped.
But should the fixture run as currently scheduled, the grand final is a lock to return to the hallowed turf of the MCG for a Saturday afternoon start time.
While their latest off-season wheels and deals drew scoffs of derision from all angles, if you scratch the surface of the Suns' time at the trade table, you will see some method in their madness.
Although the decisions that led to Will Brodie and Hugh Greenwood departing the Paradise Strip raised eyebrows, the cap space created from their respective shifts to the Dockers and Kangaroos could not have come at a better time.
Irrespective of the fact that you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone backing Stuart Dew's Carrara kids to play finals this year, 2022 is a 'make or break' season for the Suns as four former top 10 draftees are all set to come out of contract.
SEE ALSO: Every club's best 22 for '22: Gold Coast Suns
Gold Coast's moves to boost their bottom line have, obviously, been made to secure the signatures of Jack Lukosius, Izak Rankine, Elijah Hollands and Ben King, but with consistent noise surrounding the quartet's futures, said chatter will remain until each name is kept on the coast.
Given the pair hail from either South Australia and Victoria, a well-baited hook will be needed to retain all four. However, with almost every club in the competition sure to dangle their own lines, don't be surprised to see contract their talks with the Suns put on hold.
Let's be honest, those that pray at a blue and white altar haven't been able to stop beaming since Jason Horne-Francis' name was read out in November.
And you know what? We don't blame you.
With the South Australian backing himself to slot straight into a midfield that contains the entrenched likes of Ben Cunnington, Jy Simpkin, Luke Davies-Uniake and Tarryn Thomas, a five tooled engine room is apparent.
Add in the fact that fellow youngsters Charlie Lazzaro, Will Phillips and Tom Powell will also see further action, and the belting dished out by the Bulldogs on Good Friday last year should become a distant memory before too long.
An improvement to their 4-1-17 record will be welcomed by all attached to the club, but for head coach David Noble, you can be sure that holistic growth will be valued beyond the realities of the wins and losses column.
Although there is still some rocky road left to travel before a fourth premiership cup can be locked away at Arden Street, Roo boys and girls will have plenty to look forward to along their incremental rise back to prominence.
Having stuck 613 tackles and won 1648 contested possessions during his days as a Bear and a Lion, there is no denying that Michael Voss had no qualms when it came to getting his hands dirty.
Ahead of his first season as a head coach since 2013, Voss has inherited a Blues' side that finished in the bottom four for both of these metrics throughout 2021.
With a seasonal mark of 2888 contested possessions, only Collingwood, North Melbourne and Richmond ranked lower than the Princes Park club.
And with 1175 tackles across their 22-outings last year, it was just the Roos, Dockers and Eagles that the Blues could beat in this regard.
SEE ALSO: Every club's best 22 for '22: Carlton Blues
Having opened the door for ex-Swan George Hewett during the off-season, Voss has already signalled an intention to rectify these ills.
If the South Australian's recent means of 3.4 tackles and seven contested possessions per week can rub off on some of his new teammates, then a date in the eight come September could well be on the cards.
As a skipper in the Sunshine State, Voss demanded the utmost from his hardened troops. And with a burgeoning, but still unheralded, group now under his guise, expect to see the same commands dealt out to members of Carlton's midfield unit.
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.
Despite an off-season that saw them hit each and every decision out of the park, a finals return is likely to be just outside of Fremantle's reach this year.
While a place in the eight was theirs for the taking when the 2021 home-and-away season entered its final week, a crushing defeat at the hand of the Saints saw the Dockers' September drought extended.
SEE ALSO: Every club's best 22 for '22: Fremantle Dockers
Although the additions of Jordan Clark, Will Brodie, Jye Amiss and Neil Erasmus will be welcomed by Freo fanatics, the club's upcoming schedule will see them face 10 recent finalists across their 22-games.
The Western Australian side may have laid down a marker to win their first flag by 2025, but unless an ability to rectify their road form is found, a premiership, let alone a finals berth, won't be docking between the Mole lighthouses this year.
However, with a young nucleus built from local talent, as well as some sound attempts to begin altering their key forward stocks, perhaps 2021 will be the final time that members of the Purple Haze are booking September holidays for some time.
While the ageing Cats and seasoned Eagles will be eyeing off another cup for their cabinets this year, irrespective of how their seasons pan out, both should be focusing on the future at its cessation.
And given that almost 40 per cent of Geelong's list that will return from last season are set to finish the year aged 30 or above, this is hardly a surprise.
Geelong's modus operandi has been to find and lure players who can pitch in during the here and now. And although this approach has seen the Hoops play finals football every year, bar one, since 2006, it also means that they've been on the clock for some time.
Those without silver tounges have recently begun referring to Kardinia Park as a retirement home, and while there remains a modicum of truth to this barb, 44 per cent of the Cats the have stayed on in the Pivot City are aged either 24 or below.
Still, it is these members of their clowder - along with their recent draftees - that should be granted greater opportunities for growth at senior level.
SEE ALSO: Every AFL club's best 22 for '22: Geelong Cats
Out West, similar quandaries are afoot.
From their squad for the 2021 season, 22 of the names listed were beyond this 25-year-old barrier. Add in the fact that veterans Josh Kennedy, Shannon Hurn, Luke Shuey and Nic Naitanui are off-contract at season's end and there are decisions about the hereafter that must be made in the present.
As the only ruckman on their roster with any real senior experience, Naitanui's contact will be a highly publicised talking point throughout the upcoming season. While Bailey Williams and Callum Jamieson are also stoppage options for Adam Simpson, their combined experience of nine AFL games leaves plenty to be desired.
So, unless West Coast are planning a power-move to find Naitanui's replacement during the next off-season, they too will need to turn an Eagle eye to the future.
After dropping a second successive home preliminary final last year, 2008 Brownlow medallist Adam Cooney pulled no punches in his assessment of Port Adelaide.
While the former Bulldog and Bombers' tag of 'chokers' will have riled those in and around Alberton, the limp performance pulled out by Ken Hinkley's formerly bright sparks will have insenced them even more.
Across the course of their past pair of seasons, 'The Pear' have produced an average of 76-points each week while conceeding just 59.5.
However, when it is their encounters at the year's penultimate hurdle that are placed under the microscope, these means either dip to 42.5 on the board or jump to 81 against.
This monumental shift can only mean two things; either their roster is still yet to peak or an array of Port players suffer from crippling cases of performance anxiety.
Although the Power could well surge this September and find a friend for their premiership cup won in 2004, given many of have recently been bitten twice by their ineptness, you can understand why we are also thrice shy in backing them.
Although backing the reigning premiers to continue on their merry way is hardly a prime example of being out on a limb, Melbourne's ability to craft a list from all angles should be paraded as a pristine case study for others in the business.
With their blue-chip draftees blossoming and their imported pillars proving impregnable, there was no match for the Demons across the month of September.
And as Simon Goodwin will be afforded the opportunity to run back the same 22 that herculianly lifted 57-years of dismay, it's easy to see why the Redlegs are rocksteady options to add to their previously cobwebbed trophy cabinet.
While a thorough analysis of the road ahead would prove futile given the year's infancy, I am still willing to offer Melbourne a chance to pass go and collect their silverware at this stage.
Still, the little matter of who their dance partner will be is still on the cards...
Having won 83 per cent of their games at the Gabba across the past three seasons, Chris Fagan's pride are the kings of the River City.
Yet, when analysing their recent finals form on Vulture Street, the Lions' 1-4 record is suitably lame in comparison.
Given this discrepancy in performances, it isn't surprising to see them paired with Port Adelaide as the competition's classiest pretenders.
Still, with a clean bill of health - including the imminent returns of Cameron Rayner and Eric Hipwood - as well as maturation across the board, there is no time like the present for Brisbane to buck their preliminary blues.
SEE ALSO: How open is YOUR club's premiership window?
While some may see this view as hypocritical due to my recent thoughts on the Power's perennial outages, but as the Queenslander's have beaten the South Australian side in each of their past four meetings by an average of five straight kicks, the numbers prove a difference in class.
Although it will come as no surprise to see the Lions make their way through to their first grand final since 2004, the fact that the crystal ball has them facing Melbourne in Melbourne will likely see the result of that history-breaking afternoon repeated.