The prolonged afterglow from the announcement of Eddie Jones' return to Australian rugby has been like the warmth of a living room fire on a cold winter's day.
The man known as "Eddie Everywhere" has been just that. From breakfast television to talkback radio and the coveted 6pm news bulletin, Jones, and his new boss Hamish McLennan have popped up almost as regularly as talk of rising interest rates and ongoing inflation.
That sustained presence has given Australian rugby a real shot of momentum, so much so that the infamous Betoota Advocate pigeon has had little cause to really ridicule its Rugby Australia overlord.
But the largely unchallenged warm, fuzzy feeling that has inspired hope of a renewed zest for the game in Australia is about to come to an end - and the responsibility now falls on the players to carry it on themselves.
When Super Rugby Pacific kicks off in a week's time, Wallabies spots will go on the line. Performances in local derbies - where Australian players will go head-to-head in virtual World Cup battles - will be important for selection, but so too will be their efforts against New Zealand opposition, as Jones noted on Wednesday.
"Look, I think it's important that our players play well," Jones replied when asked about how important it was for Australian teams to have success against New Zealand opposition.
"I think the expectation is they play well and they consistently play well; that they play well against the New Zealand sides, is important, but it's not the be all and end all. But it'd be nice to have an Australian team win the Super Rugby [competition]."
While he initially appeared to have played down the significance of trans-Tasman success, Jones then circled back to instead ram home his message about the importance of performance against New Zealand's best.
"The games against the Crusaders or the games against whoever the next strongest New Zealand side is, they're important selection games," the Wallabies coach added.
"Because that's where we'll see the level of the players and of course the local derbies."
The opportunity to not face the New Zealand sides over a continued block, towards the middle or backend of the competition, as has been the COVID-enforced necessity of the past two years, is certainly being viewed as a positive amid the Australian franchises.
"That's a conundrum for every franchise here in Australia, but I think the way the competition is structured now will help, rather than getting them five weeks in a row, will help," new Reds defence coach Phil Blake said Wednesday.
"I know we've got the Hurricanes in Round 1 and we've had a lot of focus on that over the last three or four weeks, and then we don't meet one until [Round 6]... but it's not like you lose to one Kiwi side and then all of a sudden you've got to face another one the next week and then another one, and by the fourth or fifth week, over recent times, had enough of them.
"So I think you can be better prepared, you might come in with a couple of wins going into one of those franchises through the middle of the draw, you go in with a lot more confidence, a lot more belief, and that will [put] every franchise in good stead taking them on."
The Reds were the only Australian team not to defeat a New Zealand outfit in 2022, while Australia's collective trans-Tasman return was 7 of 25, a reasonable improvement from the two wins of the one-off Super Rugby Trans-Tasman tournament a year earlier, and certainly a far cry from the 40-match drought that plagued Australian rugby between 2016 and 2018.
The theory is that this season, as Blake referenced, the Australian sides will not have to face a collective New Zealand opposition that has been hardened by their own local derbies of Super Rugby Aotearoa, or the fixture reshuffle last year as the Kiwis teams were hit by a late COVID wave.
The Reds have that challenge first up when they welcome the Hurricanes to what will be a steamy Townsville.
With Dave Rennie sacked and Jones' second coming as Wallabies coach underway, the expectation is that the entire Australian playing cohort begins the season with a clean slate.
That will certainly be how players like Harry Wilson and Suliasi Vunivalu will see it the situation, so too Brumbies fly-half Noah Lolesio and Rebels utility Reece Hodge.
And then there are those who were robbed of the opportunity to impress Rennie because of injury - the Brumbies' Tom Hooper for example - or were forced to wait on residency grounds, just as the Waratahs' Charlie Gamble has been forced to do.
In the month since the announcement of Jones return was made, the Wallabies coach has done his best to name-check as many players as possible, which only reinforces the clean slate situation for Test selection.
"Play tough, play hard, play for your teammates and keep on finding the best of yourself, that's what we want to see," Jones said of his wishes for Wallabies hopefuls. "I've coached for a fair period of time and I don't think there's any player I've ever coached that has absolutely optimized themselves.
"So there's the opportunity for each player in Super Rugby to find a way to be a better version of themselves and that's what we want to see."
But not only is Australian success against New Zealand opposition important for Jones and the Wallabies, so too is it imperative for Super Rugby Pacific - just as the expectation that both Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika will develop after a full preseason and a draw that doesn't see them playing the majority of their games away from home or multiple matches in the single week.
If Super Rugby Pacific is to truly recapture the hearts and minds of rugby fans in this part of the world -- the law variations announced earlier this week appear a step in the direction of greater entertainment -- then it must deliver a regular season where as many matches are impossible to confidently predict pre game.
Is 10 Australian wins against New Zealand opposition a realistic target? It should be, and such a return, one hopefully spread across multiple franchises, would provide Jones with a broad church from which to select his Wallabies cohort.
For Eddie Everywhere can only continue to trumpet claims that the Wallabies "can win the World Cup" if the individual performances and collective results reflect just that.
As the countdown to Round 1 of Super Rugby Pacific enters its final week, it's time for Australia's players to ensure the month-long Eddie afterglow doesn't suddenly set on the nation's sporting horizon.