Football clubs often overestimate their own brilliance in the wake of premiership glory.
That's why repeat premierships are so difficult to win, and why they're so rightfully revered.
Collingwood fell into that trap itself. Maybe not to the same extent as the West Coast Eagles, whose drastic plummet into all-time low levels of irrelevance and feebleness continues, as plans for their 10-year premiership reunion are no doubt being drawn up.
It leaves the Magpies at a critical junction in their modern history. How needle movers at Olympic Park traverse the terrain of this tricky little post-window period will determine the decades to follow.
Here's a fool-proof list of eight steps Magpie power brokers should consider as they look to shore up the long-term competitiveness of their playing list, and health of their business.
4Beau in the guts
Make raging bull Beau McCreery part of the team's first choice on-ball brigade. He hunts the ball and the man with a reckless abandon, and more often than not, leaves a mark.
He presents a point of difference in a midfield too one-paced; too characterised by the same archetype of midfielder.
He also wants to be in there, as evidenced by Scott Pendlebury's comments immediately after his Anzac Day outburst - "Pendles" was only up forward for his last gasp goal because McCreery had communicated a desire to head into the middle.
