Carlton coach Denis Pagan might have plenty of critics - particularly amongst his own club's supporters - but surely there is no longer any doubt the Blues are on the road to recovery under the dual Kangaroos' premiership coach.
Pagan has seemingly been under siege from the time he was first appointed Carlton coach in 2003 by the soon to be ousted former president John Elliott.
The 1996 and 1999 premiership coach took over a side that had just finished last for the first time in its history and whose heart and soul was destroyed by a combination of blatant cheating of the salary cap by the Elliott administration and the resultant massive fines and loss of draft picks imposed by the AFL.
There is no doubt Pagan walked into the toughest job in football as the once proud Blues - the competition's equal most successful club with 16 premierships - was just beginning to descend into its darkest period.
Pagan will next week celebrate his 100th game in charge of the Blues and the previous 99 have yielded just 25 wins and finishing positions of 15th, 11th, 16th and 16th respectively.
Throughout this time there has been numerous rumours and innuendo surrounding Pagan, with critics questioning his style and his relationship with his players and also claiming he was not a true Carlton man.
And then there has been his very public fallout with assistant coach Barry Mitchell after the club's previous administration - led by Graham Smorgon - sought to replace Pagan with Mitchell before changing their minds at the last minute.
But Pagan has survived it all and while the 2005 NAB Cup success would prove to be a false dawn, this year's success in the same pre-season competition could well come to be remembered as the turning point for the Blues.
This time, with a much younger team with more future upside at his disposal, Pagan is laying the foundation for future success at Carlton and what's more he is doing it in style.
At a time when the playing styles of several clubs such as Sydney, St Kilda and Hawthorn have come into question, there is no doubt that Carlton - along with Geelong and Essendon and the Western Bulldogs - is one of the best teams to watch in the AFL.
This weekend's win over Port Adelaide - which was the first time since 2004 and only the third time during Pagan's tenure that the Blues have strung together successive wins - was yet more evidence of this.
It was the third time in four weeks the Blues have kicked at least 20 goals and the second successive week they have managed the feat without a major input from reigning Coleman Medallist Brendan Fevola.
Pagan has the Blues playing attractive, exciting footy and there is no doubt his many promising youngsters are learning much along the way and certainly Pagan's style of playing should do his young players' development more good in the long run than if they were playing the kind of negative football now favoured by too many coaches.
In recent number one draft picks Marc Murphy and Bryce Gibbs plus Andrew Walker, Jarrad Waite, Bret Thornton, Kade Simpson and exciting Irishman Setanta O'Hailpin, the Blues have players whom future sides can be built around.
But it has been Pagan's ability to improve players that were