Well, what a remarkable story St Kilda has been so far this year.
Whether they play finals or not, it's a truly sensational football story in many ways and so educational if we sit back and analyse what happened.
There was muted acceptance, of course, that Ross Lyon was a very good coach out of work, but it wasn't universal.
It was said by his critics, and they weren't hard to find, that he was too defensive and couldn't coach a young list. Despite lots of evidence to the contrary.
He was available in 2022, yet a number of clubs balked at his appointment, prioritising the partially informed views of activists at board-level over those who wanted action on the ground and were bored of not playing finals.
Finally, sanity prevailed and the Saints moved swiftly in an all-up bet.
So, Lyon got appointed along with some high-profile co-coaches, but the prognostications that followed immediately were at best gloomy.
For no one rated the list.'The list, the list, the bloody list’, was all you heard about when talking about St Kilda.
It would be a handbrake on St Kilda’s progress under Lyon was a considered view.
No one had them making the eight, including those who appointed him who hedged their bets partially when talking about the upcoming season.
I didn't blame them, for there was no Paddy Ryder and no Jordan De Goey, and the Saints’ second half last year was appalling.
Then the injuries started, beginning with Max King, then Jack Billings, Nick Coffield and of course Tim Membrey.
The best anyone was hoping for was a foundation year under Ross Lyon until the new talent could be added through the draft.
It would take two to three years to turn over, ‘The list, the list, the bloody list’.
There it was again until finals could be expected with the new coach.
But here we are in Round 6 and the Saints, well, they're on top of the ladder having beaten some serious opposition.
With the focus on the list, no one spoke of the system, which is all you hear about now.
‘The system, the Lyon system, it's the system’, and he's extricating the very best from ‘The list, the list, the bloody list’, or what's left of it.
It’s a performance that no one saw coming, much like the impact Lyon has had on Anthony Caminiti, Mason Wood, Mattaes Phillipou and a myriad of reinvigorated senior players.
So, when Ross Lyon was considering the job, he wasn't anywhere near as focused on the list as the chattering class of onlookers.
He knew the club had a squadron of elite runners, something he admired so much about the premiership Tigers.
Talking to Ross over the previous few years about football, it was the running power of the Tigers that engrossed him the most.
Runners were what Ross saw when he had a cursory glance at the list and in his eyes, where there was run, there was fun.
Football was once about talent and work rate, tactics were the odd kick-out plan, a tag here and there and a positional move from fullback to full forward.
If you weren't winning, you weren't trying hard enough, was the simplistic view, even if you were.
But in a more sophisticated era, system has been added to the recipe.
With 100 per cent work rate from a limited list through injury, Ross Lyon has extracted a performance that borders on the extraordinary, given the preseason expectations of the entire football world.
It's an education for us all.
As we look to Anzac Day, last year’s St Kilda in Collingwood under the revolutionary Craig McRae system, with all guns a blazing despite a host of injuries, will take on Essendon, whose list has also been belittled by many.
But with a new system under Brad Scott, it's looking like a serious challenger.
So, ‘The list, the list, the bloody list’, is obviously important and it needs to marry up with, ‘The system, the system, the system’.
Perhaps the biggest lesson of them all though under Ross Lyon is the importance of, ‘The coach, the coach, the coach’.