Legacies are defined by what teams and players achieve, or fail to achieve, in September.
The stakes are higher. Every effort is amplified. Every mistake is compounded. Every victory is glorified. Losses are rarely forgiven.
With the first week of finals upon us, let's take a look at some of the most memorable matches this corresponding point of the season has blessed footy fans with in recent memory.
The eight best first-week finals of the last decade:
3Geelong Cats v Hawthorn Hawks, 2016 Qualifying Final
With the final seconds dwindling in yet another classic encounter between these fierce modern rivals, the slippery small forward they call ‘Punky' escaped a tackle by one of the game's best ever defenders, Corey Enright.
Luke Breust would then chip a pass to a wide-open Isaac Smith, who was confronted by a fairly regulation set shot.
The siren reverberated around an enthralled MCG as the lanky wingman trotted in, but his drop punt stayed right, and Geelong made their way into a preliminary final.
The team sheets for this clash are littered with some of the biggest names the game has ever seen, and didn't these greats deliver?
Luke Hodge, Joel Selwood, Patrick Dangerfield, Shaun Burgoyne, Tom Hawkins, and Jordan Lewis were all brilliant in the encounter.
Hawthorn would go out in straight sets, famously losing to a Western Bulldogs side charting a course to destiny, a week later. The Hawks' hopes of a historic four-peat ended there, while the Cats lost to the Swans in a preliminary final, which was one of five preliminary final losses Chris Scott's men suffered between the flag triumphs of 2011 and 2022.
