In fact, that's where I'll be headed on Thursday night, to watch Richmond embark on an unstoppable march to be premiers in 2017.

Read that again. Richmond. Premiers. This year. Oh, yeah, I believe.

You'd better believe Jack's back among the leaders Photo: AFL Media

It's mapped out. Playing with newfound and relentless pressure, the Tigers will win almost every game deep into the season, then cough one up late in the year against Brisbane - Brisbane! How very Richmond - which will deliver the necessary jolt to settle down and then dominate the finals.

Think Geelong in 2007, with a run of 15 games straight that began with a 157 point thumping of ??? Richmond.

See, the heralds of middle age have not delivered me common sense. .

But that's the beauty about being a fan. To wear a lurid jumper in public and suspend disbelief. To start a new season and know, just know, that the legion of doubters and every footy expert drowning in statistics, knowledge and experience have got it absolutely, completely, totally wrong.

Ever heard of confirmation bias? The CIA warns its analysts against this tendency when trying to judge the way future events are likely to pan out - the risk of searching only for data that confirms pre-existing beliefs, to interpret new information as a validation of what is already assumed to be true, and to dismiss alternative possibilities.

So what that the Tigers are sticking to a Trent Cotchin captaincy with the same tenacity as George W. Bush declared Saddam Hussein to have weapons of mass destruction?

So what that Richmond had an awful 2016, didn't tackle and struggled to score? Or that Damien Hardwick has coached more games than any other who hasn't won a final?

See the world my way.

Nick Vlastuin will now play in the guts (and become a surprise Brownlow fancy).

Recruits Dion Prestia and Josh Caddy will free Dustin Martin to be an even better version of Dustin Martin. Hardwick and Cochin are, in fact, wily campaigners.

The draw is friendly, the pressure is off, the burning memory of finals losses spurs the team on. Surely after all the demands to bring Jack Riewoldt back to the leadership group, the die is cast and the forward line has pace. Shane Edwards, Daniel Rioli - SAMMY LLOYD!

After-the-siren hero Sam Lloyd flexes his muscles Photo: AFL Media

And as the banners fly, other teams don't stand a chance, for we have Alex Rance.

Wallow in the confirmation, Tigers fans, the surety of a season fresh.

And ask me again next year when I'm a year older.