It's been a shocking week for AFL football, with sexual assault allegations surrounding the Sydney Swans plunging not just one club but a whole competition into turmoil and sparking justified anger about male attitudes towards women not only in the game but society at large.
It's made everything else, like the Swans' torpedoing of their own premiership chances with the suspension of star players, seem utterly trivial by comparison.
In the meantime, though, the competition moves towards the pointy end. And as the home-and-away rounds wrap up, there's a remarkable story continuing to play out which, fortunately, celebrates some of the better things about the game.
It was a whirlwind few days at the start of this week for Carlton, clinching a wildcard finals spot with an amazing draw with the Western Bulldogs, then within 36 hours appointing interim coach Josh Fraser as its permanent man.
But the extent of the incredible turnaround Fraser inspired in the previously downtrodden Carlton troops perhaps still hasn't been fully appreciated, certainly not statistically, anyway. Consider this, for example.
The Blues after nine games were 1-8 in 16th spot on the ladder, but above Essendon and Richmond only on percentage. After this weekend's round, there will have been 29 teams since 1999 which have been a miserable 1-8. And other than Carlton, none of them have gone on to finish higher than 14th.
Carlton can potentially finish ninth with a win over Fremantle at Marvel Stadium on Saturday, the Dockers of course having already wrapped up top spot and with little of material value for which to play. According to StatMate, Fremantle are 7-5 in Melbourne over their past 12 games (since the start of 2024), so it's not beyond the realms of possibility.
The Blues' form line of 10 wins and a draw from the past 13 games is bettered -- only just -- by the Dockers' 11-2, and includes wins over potential finals rivals the Bulldogs, Geelong and Brisbane.
Then there's Fraser's own remarkable rise, from the man who initially all but laughed off suggestions he could potentially take over the job, to, for much of the duration of Carlton's appointment process refusing to commit, to suddenly getting the gig.
Not just that, but by the time of appointment being viewed as a virtual fait accompli such was the unstoppable momentum built by the Blues' amazing form swing.
There haven't necessarily been big changes to personnel nor game style, either. The most obvious is probably less of a reliance now upon contested ball and clearance, and more preparedness to control the ball and go short to pick a way through opposing defences.
Some numbers tell the tale. After Michael Voss's last game as Carlton coach, the Blues ranked 12th for disposals. They're currently second. In uncontested marks, they've moved from 13th to second.
More fluid ball movement has boosted forward efficiency, too, Carlton's scores per inside 50 having shifted from a ranking of 13th to seventh. As for the bottom line, scores for and against, the Blues were 16th and 15th respectively after nine games. Now, they're 12th and eighth.
Carlton has made a mockery of the long-established mantras about how you start the season generally being how you finish it, old faithful maxims like "the round 7 rule" (of which I had long been a big proponent) now looking pretty sick.
The eerie thing is, if there's another close contemporary example to the miracles Fraser has engineered with this team, it's probably the Blues themselves just three years ago under Voss.
Carlton in 2023 lost a run of eight games out of nine at one stage, and were a dismal 15th on the ladder after 13 rounds.
They then won nine games in a row to finish the home and away season fifth, won two memorable, nail-biting cut-throat finals against Sydney then Melbourne, and led a preliminary final against Brisbane at the Gabba by five goals before eventually going down by just 16 points.
There's at least half that team still involved in this campaign, so perhaps it's not that surprising this version three years on has been able to generate similar momentum once they had a taste of victory.
Could this incarnation go on to similar finals heroics?
Well, it goes without saying it's a harder road from the wildcard games, any team from seventh to 10th now having to win five games to win a premiership.
Only one team has even played five finals before in football history, North Melbourne in 1977, when the Roos beat Collingwood in a Grand Final replay. But the Roos had the cushion of a double chance, which allowed them to rebound from a qualifying final loss.
Carlton is most likely to play either Adelaide in Adelaide, or Collingwood at the MCG, having lost to the Pies twice this season and the Crows early on during that horror early stretch.
The assignment couldn't be tougher. But momentum is a wonderful thing, as is an unlikely revival. And just like three years ago, and as unthinkable as it would have seemed 20-30 years ago, the Blues are actually garnering a bit of goodwill towards this come-from-the-clouds effort.
And this week in particular, it's a good-news story remarkably well timed.
You can read more of Rohan Connolly's work at FOOTYOLOGY.