There are a lot of things that get better with age. Fine wine, cheese and even a good pair of jeans can improve as the clock winds along.
Football players aren't meant to be in this class. The mind is often willing, but the flesh is weak.
Players like Jack Gunston, however, are determined to prove this wrong. Turning 35 next month, Gunston has preserved himself but actively gotten better. His last two years have been his most fruitful in front of the big sticks, and his value to Hawthorn never more important.
Gunston failed to top 60 season goals in the first 15 years of his AFL career. Since turning 33, he has done it twice.
Gunston's longevity has already seen him kick more than 35 per cent of his goals since turning 30, the sixth-highest rate among AFL-era players with over 500 goals.
The era of the stay-at-home lead-up forward was recently thought to have gone the way of the dodo, but its revival has been carried out by a rising young crop, alongside Gunston that is.
In his fourth stint, at a third club, Gunston is set to lead a Hawthorn forward line into a shot at its first grand final in 11 years.
One of the youngest in the 2009 draft class, Gunston was green, slight and seen as a work in progress.
Most famous was his role as one of five career All Australians in Hawthorn's 2010s dynasty forward line, but before that he cut his teeth with Taylor Walker and Patrick Dangerfield.