Consider what's changed at Carlton since early February last year.
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The president, the chief executive and football manager are all different. Six assistant coaches are new. Three of their most important players - one a dual Coleman medallist - decided their AFL futures were better served elsewhere.
Also, the pressure has changed - in that inevitably it's ratcheted up again - at a club that once could count on premiership contention and now has gone three decades without a flag.
The Blues went backwards last season and dropped out of the top eight for the first time in three seasons. They never really recovered from the shock round-one loss to Richmond and for all Carlton's talent, only four clubs scored less.
Another significant change, in the context of club history, was one they didn't make - despite their on-field struggles. Carlton stuck with their senior coach.
But Michael Voss is now in the last year of his contract. Whatever happens, he will be one of the key stories of the season.
"I've seen a club that's willing to listen and really wanting to get better. But mostly it's been how do you get an entirely new environment bedded together," new football boss Chris Davies told AAP.
"There aren't too many times you have as significant list changes at a club and as significant off-field changes at a club, all at the one time.
"What has been in the past almost has no relation to what we're doing now, because this is an entirely new group that is going to have to find its own way."
Of all the changes at Carlton, Davies was one of the most recent - and one of the most important. He was appointed late last year, replacing Brad Lloyd, after 11 years in the same role at Port Adelaide.
While Port never won a flag in Davies' time at Alberton, they regularly reached the pointy end of the ladder under coach Ken Hinkley.
"(I'm) coming from a program that had a lot of consistency, to a program now that needs to develop its own consistency," was how Davies put it.
There's a careful balance that needs to be struck, between all the expectations at a once-powerful club starved of success, and all the realities around what Lloyd points out is an "entirely new group".
Davies gets it. He is a lifelong Carlton fan. He also noted the change of coming to a football department with more resources at its disposal than his previous employer.
So for all the pressure, there is massive opportunity too. Imagine being the footy program that finally made it click and brought the Blues back to where they feel they belong.
"The easiest way for me to describe it is, Jagga Smith has no responsibility for what's happened," Davies said of the highly rated Blues youngster, who missed all of last year through injury and is yet to make his senior debut..
"So what we need to do is provide Jagga - our entire squad right now - the opportunity to be as successful as we possibly can be for 2026 and to start putting some building blocks in place for more sustained performance.
"That will be interesting for us all to navigate this year, because I feel that want for our team to be successful. I just think the way we go about it internally needs to be thought out.
"It's hard enough to be successful at the best of times. When you're carrying baggage that is actually not even yours, it would be even harder. We have to find that balance."
They must find that balance fast.
This week they play losing grand finalists Geelong in the pre-season. Then comes opening round and Sydney, with that departed dual Coleman medallist Charlie Curnow now leading their attack and craving a bag of goals against his old club.
Jacob Weitering, the obvious candidate to replace Curnow, is no certainty to play after a rib injury in the State of Origin game. And midfielder Adam Cerra is out with a hamstring strain.
But key onballer Sam Walsh looks ready this time after three injury-plagued pre-seasons. Smith is a huge talent. Captain Patrick Cripps remains a star. Ex-Sydney players Ollie Florent and Will Hayward are handy recruits.
And maybe there can be a silver lining to life without Curnow, and defenders Tom De Koning and Jack Silvagni, if Carlton can rectify their ball use.
Joining Carlton means Davies has been reunited with Voss, whose previous job was an assistant under Hinkley.
"Michael has done a great job in a very short period, trying to put together what it is an entirely new group," Davies said.
"Everything that Michael was on the field (as a player) - that people will have been able to see - he is (that) behind the scenes.
"He is an amazing leader of men, he's an inspirational person and my responsibility to him is to be honest about the things that I'm seeing around the place, that he can help to make the club better.
"He's been entirely open to my suggestions."
While it's a season with so much uncertainty for the Blues, one thing is obvious.
Davies, Voss, president Rob Priestley, chief executive Graham Wright and the rest of Carlton's hierarchy won't go short of feedback from a very impatient fan base.