How you view the remainder of this AFL season depends largely on whether you're a glass half-full or empty sort of person.
The bad news is that with the top eight seemingly as good as settled, there may be more than the usual quota of games over the remaining eight rounds which are relatively meaningless affairs.
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FootyFix: Cats battle Swans for the top four
Rohan Connolly previews all the footy action ahead of round 16 in the AFL.
The considerable good news, however, is that we've probably never had a final eight so evenly matched.
If you think that's purely speculation, just check out the AFL ladder, which before this round featured Hawthorn on top followed by a cluster of no fewer than six teams all even on points in second with 10 wins.
With 72 games remaining before Port Adelaide's clash with Hawthorn, there were scheduled 20 games between teams both essentially already out of the running. If they're of the same standard as last Saturday night's Carlton-Collingwood clash, it could be a long lead-in to September.
But there's also a dozen which will be fought out between two teams in the finals mix.
And with the jockeying for an all-important top-four spot so tight, these are the proverbial eight-point games, clashes in which teams have not only the opportunity to shore up their own spot, but throw a considerable spanner in the works of a top-eight rival.
Round 16 has two of them, Friday night's joust between Geelong and Sydney at Simonds Stadium, and on Sunday in Perth, West Coast taking on North Melbourne at Domain Stadium.
There's a respite of sorts over the following four rounds, with just one top-eight clash per week. But it's on again in earnest in the lead-up to September, with each of the last three rounds featuring two games pivotal to sorting out the order of the final eight, and in such an even season, perhaps also going a long way to determining who'll be in poll position to win the premiership.
Who looks best placed? Well, in terms of strength of opposition, it's those precocious kids from the west of Sydney who have a golden opportunity to not only play in their first finals campaign, but snatch a top-four berth and home final to boot.
Greater Western Sydney, already third and with a very healthy percentage, meet just two top-eight rivals in the run home, West Coast in round 21 and North Melbourne in round 23.
Better still, the Eagles game is at Spotless Stadium, not Perth, given the Giants' increasingly formidable record on their home patch, and the problems on the road the Eagles have dealt with all season. They'll play the Roos at Etihad Stadium, but that ground is becoming pretty popular with the Giants as well, having won five of their last seven games there.
Adelaide, too, appear pretty well placed. The Crows will also meet only two other teams in the top eight in the run home, Geelong (away) and West Coast, and play five of their remaining eight games (including a "Showdown" with Port Adelaide) at home.
As for who has the toughest road to September, that's a no contest. North Melbourne, having fallen from two games clear in top spot back in round nine to seventh now after four losses in their past five games, might not even have seen the worst of it yet.
The Roos have the Eagles to negotiate in Perth this week. They get a handful of "should wins" to follow, but their last four opponents, in order, are Western Bulldogs, Hawthorn, Sydney and GWS.
That's as tough a lead-in to September as any team has faced in recent memory. Then again, should North survive it, they won't be relying on any other teams to do the work for them, having cleared the path themselves.
It's Geelong who appear to have the "crusiest" path immediately leading into the finals once the Cats are done with Sydney, Adelaide and the Bulldogs over the next month. Their final four games are against Essendon, Richmond, Brisbane and Melbourne, just one road trip among that lot.
That's a schedule several rivals wouldn't mind, Hawthorn, Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs all with a trip to Perth to tackle at some stage of the final three rounds.
That's the same time frame in which six of the dozen "eight pointers" will be played, an attractive proposition indeed for the AFL and the broadcasters, a sort of mini finals series before we even get to the real thing.