AFL season 2008 will be remembered above all for Hawthorn's premiership - the club's 10th in 48 years - and the key roles played by two Hawks in particular, polar opposites in coach Alastair Clarkson and forward Lance Franklin.
Clarkson masterminded one of the great football heists of all-time in the Hawks' 26-point Grand Final victory over Geelong.
On finals-eve the artful Clarkson was still talking development rather than premierships, but his players were primed - from first-year forward Cyril Rioli to Shane Crawford on his last legs, and Stuart Dew, the plump red cherry atop the Hawks' premiership cake.
The Cats made it easy for their opponents by scoring 1.9 in the second quarter, something no-one saw coming from a team chasing successive flags and coming off 23 wins from 24 starts in 2008.
Did the Cats' concentration stray? Was there a touch of hubris about them? Did their selectors stuff up? Probably, but the Hawks, to their credit, sensed an opportunity and grabbed it.
The premiership was Hawthorn's reward for tight, disciplined management and adventurous drafting.
One of those draft risks, Franklin, announced himself in 2008 not just as the game's brightest and most charismatic star but as potentially one of the greatest of all-time.
Presenting a near-impossible match-up, Franklin scored as many of his 113 goals doubling-back at top pace from midfield as he did when using his height and strength from in and around the goalsquare.
At just 21 and accompanied wherever he goes by a whiff of danger, it's frightening to think what Franklin could achieve over the course of his career if he can keep a clear head.
While Franklin was the game's most valuable player, Western Bulldog Adam Cooney has a Brownlow Medal to show for his stellar season and celebrated it with one of the more memorable speeches of recent times.
The 23-year-old polled 23 votes to edge Brisbane's Simon Black by one with the unlucky Gary Ablett and sentimental favourite Matthew Richardson equal third on 21.
If only 'Richo' had been unleashed years ago, we'd surely now be regarding him as the prototype for Franklin.
In terms of great team performances in 2008, Collingwood's powerhouse 86-point thumping of Geelong in Round 9, the Cats' single regular-season loss when they were tackled to death, is a standout.
Individually, Ablett's 39 touches against West Coast in Round 13 when the Cats destroyed the Eagles by 135 points at Subiaco is hard to top.
As for having a