Take yourselves back to around December 2014. The Wellington Lions had just been relegated to the provincial second division, and the coach during that train-wreck of a season Chris Boyd was about to take over as head coach of the Hurricanes.
There was a fair bit of scepticism around Wellington. Hurricanes fans had just endured three years of up and down performances, no playoff matches, and of course the dumping of a few high profile players.
The scepticism was not only fair, but it was justified at the time. I remember asking Boyd a few times about that. He insisted, every time, that you couldn't read anything into the Lions campaign from a Hurricanes perspective.
It all seemed a bit convenient but as the nation became transfixed on the marvellous performances of the Black Caps, the Boyd-led Hurricanes quietly put together a monster of a season. They had a monster of a team, of course. Ma'a Nonu's final Super Rugby season was arguably his best, and Conrad Smith and Nehe Milner-Skudder weren't bad either.
They won the league by 13 points only to fall in the final to the Highlanders.
The stacked team saw its key parts disappear though, Smith and Nonu to France, Milner-Skudder and James Broadhurst to injury. A long list.
Then they lost their first game of the 2016 season 52-10 to the Brumbies, before another defeat to the Highlanders a week later.
For a while, it looked as if the 2016 Hurricanes would be closer to the 2014 Wellington Lions than the team that dominated the competition in 2015.
But now, here they are, top of the table and with the easiest run to the final. The young leaders in this team, Dane Coles, TJ Perenara and Beauden Barrett deserve plenty of the credit. But perhaps the guy who won't get much is Boyd.
Some will argue he hasn't won anything yet, and that's completely fair. But Boyd has a win-loss record of 27-7 with the Hurricanes in the past two years, playing in the brutal New Zealand Conference. They are 11-3 in regular season Conference clashes with two one point losses.
It's a record that affords Boyd the credit I don't think he gets. He deserves to be considered as one of the top coaches in the game here.
I don't think he's a favourite to be the next All Blacks coach, but he's working himself into the conversation. That post won't come up until 2020 by the looks of things, so it's hard to accurately argue who will be in contention at that point but the way Boyd is going, he is every bit a contender.
Of course, Joe Schmidt, Warren Gatland, Dave Rennie, Jamie Joseph, and Ian Foster are all pretty good coaches and are on track to compile attractive applications for the top job in New Zealand rugby when it's available.
Now, with his success in 2015 and in my view, even greater work in 2016, I think Boyd could too.