A new year has arrived, and NRL clubs will be back from their Christmas breaks to ramp up pre-season training in the next week.
The final run to the season often brings with it heightened intensity and discussion as fans ready themselves for the new campaign.
This year could on another level altogether with the season opening in Las Vegas a week ahead of schedule.
Expectations are a funny thing though. Every year, there are teams who will go well beyond what they were expected to do, and others who fall a long way short of where they were supposed to be.
But what exactly are those expectations for all 17 NRL teams in 2024?
Here is what your team needs to do to earn a pass in 2024.
2. Tigers: Avoid bottom four
The Tigers have been the NRL's perennial battlers, having not made the finals for more than a decade and also picking up the last two wooden spoons on the trot.
That must start to turn around in 2024, even if it doesn't go full circle yet.
The club have made more signings for the 2024, and will move on from the Luke Brooks era with a completely new halves combination, under a new coach in Benji Marshall, with, maybe just as importantly, a new board off the field.
While Jarome Luai is set to join the club in 2025 (reportedly, anyway,) the Tigers need to start seeing some improvement in 2024.
A pass mark for the club in Marshall's first season at the helm isn't going to be making the finals - to be perfectly honest, that may be pie in the sky stuff for the joint-venture.
But avoiding the bottom four and at different points of the season looking like a side who might be in the mix for the top eight is an absolute must.
Another season anchored to the bottom would be a dismal failure.
