AFL seasons seem to come and go in the blink of an eye, and 2022 appears no exception, with teams already nearly one-third of the way through their 22-game schedule.
Wasn't it only a few short weeks ago we were getting underway?
The football landscape changes quicker than ever now, and never is that made clearer than with a simple glance at the current ladder, Fremantle occupying second spot, a resurgent St Kilda fifth and old stagers like Carlton and Collingwood also in the top eight.
Actually, though, there might be an even better example.
And it's at the other end of the premiership table.
How often, six games into a new AFL season, have we seen not one, nor two, but three finalists from last year stuck in the bottom five with just one win and five losses?
We're talking about Port Adelaide (14th), Greater Western Sydney (15th) and Essendon (16th), and already the prognosis for each in terms of having another crack at September is bleak, particularly when you consider just two teams in the last 60 years (Sydney 2017 and North Melbourne 1975) have played finals after being even 0-4.
What's most interesting about the three 2021 finalists turned sour, though, is the contrasting profiles of all three, and just how each might handle the rest of this season should further defeats over the next few weeks essentially seal their fates.
And the contrast is where each team might be perceived to be in its development.
After two consecutive preliminary final appearances, Port Adelaide is clearly the heavyweight of the trio.
What does that mean?
That coach Ken Hinkley had some justification the other week for refusing to write off the season for Port and, to an extent, has been vindicated in the way the Power almost overturned a 50-point deficit against Carlton, then wiped the floor with West Coast for its first win of the season.
Is Port's push for a second AFL premiership done if 2022 is a write-off?
The list demographics don't necessarily suggest it given the Power has only the sixth-oldest list (average age 24.8) and in a sweet spot for average games experience (fourth most-seasoned at an average 76 games per player).
What has been exposed, though, and not for the first time, is a lack of depth, particularly midfield, where too often for Port, it's Brownlow medallist Ollie Wines, veteran former skipper Travis Boak, or bust.
Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs aren't the only midfield groups in the AFL now to run rings around Port for both quantity and quality, and the need for young tyros like Zak Butters, Connor Rozee and Xavier Duursma to become consistent weekly contributors to the mix has never been more obvious.
Greater Western Sydney's lack of not just depth, but also class, has also been badly exposed by the start to 2022.
The most obvious symbol of that is the always-controversial visage of Toby Greene, and the impact that six-game suspension from last year's elimination finals has had not just on the Giants' 2021 finals campaign, but its entire 2022 assault.
GWS certainly displayed genuine resilience last year through a catalogue of injury and misfortune, and the change in character of the Giants over recent years from that cliched "Ferrari" image to now more like a Holden Commodore has been fascinating.
But has it also thrown a spanner in the developmental works?
The Giants' disastrous 2020, following a grand final appearance in 2019, must have sorely tempted coach Leon Cameron and co. to move on even then.
Will a similarly unsuccessful 2022 lead them to conclude it's time to draw the curtain on this group, or could a few tweaks and some judicious hand-picked recruiting be enough to turn things around a second time? It's going to be a tough one to answer.
And then there's Essendon, which made some encouraging gains last year, but for a third time now in six seasons, appears to be following up a campaign, which yielded finals, with a lazy-looking and too-easily-satisfied effort.
Like Port, the Bombers have had a serious lack of depth exposed by injuries to a handful of admittedly key players.
The retirement of a dependable key forward in Cale Hooker and the personal struggles of livewire small forward Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti have taken a greater toll on the forward set-up than they should have. The backline looks fragile. And the midfield still isn't deep enough.
More disturbing than all those structural issues, however, has been the sheer lack of effort laid bare on several occasions.
Essendon has a relatively young list (14th oldest) and only two rivals have averaged fewer games played, but measures like effort are non-negotiables regardless of how seasoned a group is.
The rather large elephant in the room for the Bombers is what these continued types of failures say about the coaching and development programs in place at the club, the recruiting and list management, and most disturbingly, the culture.
They are recurring issues at Essendon, and as more than two decades now of relative mediocrity have established, none are problems solved easily, nor quickly.
Not good news for the Dons when you glance again at the current ladder, see their struggles and those of Port Adelaide and GWS, and realise that in the current AFL environment, even six weeks or so is a very long time in football indeed.
