Sunday's coming.
Ah, they come whistling round, these Law Cups. Having shaken off the dust with a friendly each last week, Sunday's game provides both coaches with a chance to fine tune their gameplans in what is usually a 'live rounds' exercise.
Oldham won at Leigh by 8 points last week whilst Hornets cleared Chorley by 46. How seriously one can use these results as a guide is questionable when you look at the permutations used in those games.
Leigh shuffled all 12 of their substitutes, so one suspects that they never really established a rhythm or pattern, whilst Oldham employed 7 - one of which was Mike ford who took the field towards the end of his testimonial for a wave to the crowd.
Having recently added Warrington center Will Cowell, Saints stand-off John Braddish and Cas utility back John Goddard to their ranks, Oldham's team building looks to finally be coming together.
But with Mannion, Hayes, Norton and Roden missing and Knox reckoned to be 'doubtful' earlier in the week, Mike Ford will be wanting this one out of the way with as little fuss as possible.
As anyone who made the trip to Chorley could see, Hornets were by turn rusty and great.
Martin Hall played two separate teams in each half and shuffled them both constantly, so it was hard to gauge how good it was as a team performance. But some individual performances caught the eye.
Paul Smith looks like a quality acquisition - big, rangy and no little pace - while Richard Pachniuk slotted straight in like he's never been away. Matt Long gives us physical presence and Steve Gartland turned in a faultless performance to show that more than half the job's done in the brain and the hands.
But undoubtedly the biggest source of conjecture this week has been the ongoing saga of Danny Sculthorpe. With Hornets fielding a rush of Super League enquiries, latest rumours - backed by cautious press reports - suggest that Wigan lead the pack.
John Kear's schizophrenic role as both England U21 coach and Wigan assistant coach seems to have ensured that his talents have been... er... channelled in a particular direction.
Undoubtedly, Kear having the ear of Uncle Maurice seems to have worked in both parties' favour. Some might say that it brings into question the ethics behind a national coach directing the best of the available talent to the club he also works for, but we'd never suggest that, would we.
Meanwhile, as fans whisper and rumours circulate, we've got Sunday to look forward to. Hornets and Oldham could meet in the local for a game of pool and it'd have an element of derby-driven needle to it.
No matter the context - from playoff semi to pre-season 'friendly' - there's a distinct tingle about this fixture. It always gets the emotions going, raises the heart rate and has that partisan feeling that an away fixture at Barrow somehow fails to replicate.
In our little corner of East Lancashire, this fixture is a statement of intent, a demarcation of status and a constantly changing claim to the most parochial - and hence the most important - of Rugby League crowns.
Whichever side of the divide you sit, it's never less than interesting. See you there