We're two weeks away from the AFL Grand Final and yet we already know what sort of a matchup awaits.
It will be an experienced hand against a newcomer at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the first day of October to determine 2016's champions.
The Sydney Swans beat Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs knocked out three-time defending premiers Hawthorn this past weekend.
That means the Swans will take on Geelong on this Friday night in Melbourne to determine one Grand Finalist, whilst Greater Western Sydney will play the Western Bulldogs late Saturday afternoon in Sydney to determine the other.
Both the Swans and Geelong are regulars at the business end of the season: eight of the last eleven AFL Grand Finals have had one of them play in it.
On the other side of things, Greater Western Sydney are in only their fifth season in the competition and the Western Bulldogs last made a Grand Final all the way back in 1961.
But after eliminating a historically-good Hawthorn side, Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge refuses to put a limit on far his team can go.
"You can never be intimidated when you've got a group who keep aspiring to get the most out of themselves. You just feel like this group of players can do anything."
Hawthorn may be out in the AFL running for 2016, but last year's NRL champions, the North Queensland Cowboys, are still eligible to successfully defend their title.
They played last year's Grand Final opponent, Brisbane, in a knockout final last Friday and, as they did last October to win the 2015 NRL championship, they defeated them in a thriller that required extra time.
Now Cronulla, a team that's famously never won a Grand Final since they started in 1967, is all that stands between North Queensland and back-to-back Grand Finals.
But Cowboys coach Paul Green says the game against Brisbane was so exhausting, they'll spend much of the lead-up to the clash against Cronulla getting well again, referring to backline stars Antonio Winterstein and Kane Linnett in particular.
"Yeah, they won't be too far away. There's a big chance that possibly both of them will be back, so we'll just wait and see. For now though, the most important thing, given we played 90 minutes of footy there tonight at a pretty hectic pace, in hot conditions...most of next week will be about recovery."
The Cowboys play Cronulla on Friday night in Sydney.
The Grand Final opponent of whoever wins that game will be determined the next evening in Melbourne, when the Melbourne Storm play the Canberra Raiders.
The Raiders eliminated Penrith, 22 points to 12, in Canberra this past weekend.
In rugby union, or any sport really, Australians don't like giving New Zealanders a hand.
But after New Zealand's bonus-point victory over South Africa, the All Blacks' clinching of this year's The Rugby Championship was made official when Australia defeated Argentina in Perth, 36 points to 20.
The victory, however, does continue the Wallabies' redemption tour after their two big defeats by the All Blacks last month that kept the trans-Tasman Bledisloe Cup in New Zealand.
Australian forward David Pocock says the team is unified.
"We've had a lot of heat from teams, and everyone, so we're sticking together, we're enjoying sticking together. And we've got to work at all the hard things."
And in tennis, Australia will have the chance to play for the Davis Cup next year after remaining in the competition's top tier, the World Group.
They've secured a World Group place for 2017 after defeating Slovakia, three matches to nil, in a playoff in Sydney this past weekend.
Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic were winners in the singles, whilst John Peers and Sam Groth won in the doubles.
Australian Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt says Kyrgios could well be amongst the top ten players in the world by the time Australia starts their World Group campaign next year.
But Hewitt says the International Tennis Federation is not properly rewarding players for representing their country in the Davis Cup, because players aren't given rankings points for Davis Cup results.
"I think they should get points. I think it's probably only fair that they get points, because some of their wins are pretty hard to do on the regular tour. And to be able to back it up...this year it's been hard, because guys have lost points that have done really well, last year in Davis Cup, so it's been a really big difference this year. My personal feeling is I think there should be points in the Olympics and Davis Cup."
Australia has won the Davis Cup 28 times, but their last triumph was back in 2003.
