For Brett Ratten and Luke Beveridge, it's here we go again.
Ratten returns to AFL senior coaching on Sunday when he takes over the reins at St Kilda for their match against the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium.
The last six rounds are effectively an audition for Ratten, who would love to secure a full-time appointment.
He joined the Saints this year as an assistant and took over on Tuesday when Alan Richardson's six-year tenure ended.
It's deja vu for Ratten, who was also appointed caretaker at Carlton in 2007 when Denis Pagan was sacked.
The former Blues captain gained the job for a further five seasons, taking them to the finals, before he was sacked for Mick Malthouse.
Sunday is now also old hat for Beveridge, given the Bulldogs lost to North Melbourne in Brad Scott's last game as their coach.
A fortnight later, the Bulldogs beat Carlton by three points, handing Blues caretaker coach David Teague his first loss.
Beveridge said the key for the Bulldogs is to ignore the noise around the Saints and concentrate on continuing their improvement.
They are a finals hope after winning four of their last five matches, including the Carlton game.
"The important thing is to probably not even identify with and concentrate on what you're doing - that's the critical thing," Beveridge said.
"If there is a spike on their behalf the challenge for us doesn't change, it just means they're going to make it more difficult for us.
"The teams we've played in recent times have gone out and set about doing that anyway, so we're OK with that."
This has been a significant week for AFL senior coaches - on Friday, Beveridge signed a contract extension that ties him to the Bulldogs until 2023.
Before that announcement there had been speculation that the Saints should go after the 2016 premiership-winning coach, a former St Kilda player.
Meanwhile, Beveridge was confident star onballer Marcus Bontempelli will play against the Saints after he suffered an ankle injury last Sunday in the win over Melbourne.
Tom Liberatore and Caleb Daniel will return from injury and Bailey Dale is their other inclusion.
The Saints will give Doulton Langlands his AFL debut and Matt Parker is back in the seniors.
Australian Associated Press
