If there's anything worse than coming oh-so-close to an AFL premiership but missing out, it's the realisation when subsequent performances fall away that it may be some time indeed before the next opportunity to win a flag presents itself.
Perhaps no set of supporters in the league know that as well as St Kilda fans. For them, it's been slim pickings indeed since they were famously denied potentially two premierships in consecutive seasons in 2009-10, first by a toe-poke and then by a skewiff bounce of the ball.
St Kilda has made finals just twice in the past 13 seasons. The Saints have finished in the bottom five in that period on five occasions. They've wanted for genuine stars. And they've at times played a brand of football which has been about as exciting as watching paint dry.
So you can understand the sizeable bandwagon building around the exciting form of 18-year-old Alix Tauru, already universally known as "The Flying Viking" (his heritage is Swedish) for his prodigious aerial ability and courage.
Mind you, Tauru is not the only young Saint who's given supporters at least something to cheer about over the past couple of seasons.
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera is already a bona fide star of the competition and St Kilda's most valuable asset. Mitch Owens, Mattaes Phillipou and Darcy Wilson have all shown sustained periods of prodigious talent at senior level. This season, Max Hall and Isaac Keeler have also bobbed up impressively. And there's others still among St Kilda's draftees of whom plenty is expected, including Max King, who has unfortunately been hit by the injury stick over the past 24 months.
The tangible results aren't yet being delivered in a steady stream of wins for the Saints, but for the first time in a while, the club's fans are going to games and expecting to feel at least some excitement in the bigger picture build of something potentially substantial.
Which is perhaps why what's going on off the field at Moorabbin with list management right now is occupying supporters' minds just as much. The Saints, let alone their supporters, are more than a little anxious about a couple of contrasting contractual situations with potentially enormous ramifications.
Most immediately, it's the state of play with Wanganeen-Milera, the silkiest of ball users, the coolest of heads, the sort of player around whom the Saints can build a team for the next decade, and a star whom the likes of Adelaide and Port Adelaide would love to lure back to his native South Australia.
St Kilda has countered that interest with a reported minimum two-year deal worth upwards of $1.2 million per year. His answer will be the biggest contract call in the Saints' history since Tony Lockett asked for a trade to in 1994, according to former Saints' star Leigh Montagna.
"You don't get many talents like him walking through the door," he said on Fox Footy. "We probably haven't seen him at St Kilda since Nick Riewoldt 25 years ago, and if he does choose to go to another club or ask for a trade, it is going to set this rebuild back five to ten years."
The other big decision has the roles reversed, the Saints' the hunters, and highly-rated Carlton ruckman Tom De Koning the target.
St Kilda's offer of a seven-year deal worth $12 million ($1.7 million per year) has been the most widely-discussed deal in football all season, the latest angle whether all the speculation and attendant pressure has begun to impact on the Blues' big man.
But while the Saints would also be watching De Koning's current form slump with some interest, perhaps the rapid emergence of Tauru besides Wanganeen-Milera's career-best form might also have at least subtly changed the Saints' perspective on how they manage their list.
The obvious danger is that St Kilda pays De Koning so much it ends up costing it not only one but several less-heralded players whose cumulative value might only become clearer down the track. Not to mention what happens to current No. 1 ruck Rowan Marshall, himself still only 29.
Big names are always "sexy" when it comes to the look of a list on paper, but is the reality as attractive as the opportunity of kick-starting a bigger clutch of young talent out of the national draft pool? Not to mention hanging on to existing players upon whom much time and energy has already been spent?
The big names on big money can prove the critical difference to a team already in contention. Take Patrick Dangerfield to Geelong, for example, or Tom Lynch's contribution to a couple of Richmond premierships.
But depending upon what's already in hand, can judicious recruiting of less-heralded types prove just as effective? Right now, for instance, does not Adelaide's luring into the line-up of Alex Neal-Bullen, James Peatling and Isaac Cumming look like a masterstroke for the Crows?
Has St Kilda yet been able to practically gauge just how far it can go with its current playing group given the extent of its injuries at stages?
How different might its talent ceiling be viewed were Wanganeen-Milera, Tauru, Owens, Phillipou and Wilson, all fit and in form, actually manage to get on the park together as a group more often?
Would that eventuality even potentially cause coach Ross Lyon to pursue a more attacking approach, beating in mind St Kilda this year ranks a poor 15th for fewest points conceded and 10th for points scored, a notable change from the usual profile of Lyon-coached teams?
Precocious young talent can be a powerful football force. St Kilda looks to have acquired plenty of it. And even De Koning, who turns 26 in a week, would still have plenty of years ahead of him were he to join the club.
For Saints fans, it's more excitement than they've known for a while. But does their club now continue to stockpile for a more distant payday, or chase more instant gratification? However long the answer takes to arrive at, for the AFL's longest-suffering fan base, it needs to be the right one.
You can read more of Rohan Connolly's work at FOOTYOLOGY.