Regardless of the result of Saturday night's NAB Cup decider against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium, St Kilda looks the best equipped team to challenge reigning premiers Geelong in 2008.
The Saints' effort in reaching the pre-season decider is even more creditable considering coach Ross Lyon has mostly played an inexperienced team during the competition - highlighting just how much depth St Kilda has at its disposal.
It is easy to forget in the wake of Geelong's all-conquering 2007 premiership season that it was the Saints who were considered the more likely of the two to win a premiership from the time both clubs burst out of the doldrums simultaneously in 2004.
The Saints and the Cats both made the preliminary final in 2004 and suffered narrow losses to Port Adelaide and Brisbane respectively while the Saints - unlike the Cats - reached the preliminary final again the following year only to blow it at home to eventual premiers Sydney.
So the point is that St Kilda's list is every bit as mature and talented as Geelong's and equally ready to win a premiership.
The Saints' problem over recent years has been their inability to keep their best players on the field - a problem which particularly haunted them during the 2004 and 2005 finals series.
And while the Saints may not have even made the eight last year, Geelong showed in 2007 that a team that did not make the finals the previous season can win the premiership provided it remains healthy and has a mature, talented list at its disposal.
The Saints definitely have a mature list at its disposal - players such as Nick Riewoldt, Justin Koschitzke, Lenny Hayes, Leigh Montagna, Luke Ball, Nick Dal Santo, Sam and Leigh Fisher, Steven Baker, Stephen Milne, Brendon Goddard, Matt Maguire and Xavier Clarke - are all at the peak of their careers and they still have more than handy veterans in Robert Harvey, Max Hudghton and Fraser Gehrig on top of that.
And despite Gehrig sustaining a calf injury during the NAB Cup, the Saints' pre-season has been largely injury-free as they finally look capable of keeping their guns on the park.
Koschitzke, who in many ways sums up the entire St Kilda side - ultra-talented but injury-prone - finally looks ready to last a full season, having played just 97 games in seven seasons.
The Saints have also been able to gradually ease the likes of Ball and Harvey into the season while Maguire and Goddard are making solid progress in their returns from long-term injuries.
Two other factors also point to a major St Kilda resurgence in 2008 - their improved depth and increased familiarity with coach Ross Lyon's game-plan.
There is no doubt the Saints struggled in this area last year as Lyon sought a more defensive style of play from the free-flowing, attacking days under previous coach Grant Thomas - a style which got the Saints so near yet so far from that long-awaited second premiership.
That change led to the Saints' attack losing its potency last year, when it kicked 200 less points over the home and away season than the previous year - resulting in a fall from sixth to ninth.
But it was easy to forget that the Saints only conceded 32 more points last year than they did in 2004, when they came so close to