Welcome to the 2012 AFL season.

Barely a month after the 2011 Grand Final, we're at it again. Or was there a break at all? Seems like just last week we were discussing Nick Maxwell's knuckle and Stevie J's knee.

Anyway, who needs to take a holiday when there's messages to be spruiked, new players to be unveiled, 'vision opportunities' to be given to TV stations and PR spin to be spun. Every club has to be out there, selling and spinning, lest they be seen to be left behind.

As many as eight clubs have taken to the training track this week, some of them featuring new coaches and new players but all of them spruiking a new message of optimism for the coming season.

It's not enough to simply start pre-season training now, you've got to wheel out your coach, star players - and maybe even star presidents - and embark on a membership drive or debt eradication campaign. At the very least, you've got to offer your supporters a beacon of hope; something for them to cling on to over those long summer months.

The upbeat messages are all about attracting new members and keeping the ones who signed on last year; same goes with the major sponsors.

Scott Watters and Nick Riewoldt had a media conference at the Saints' first session today - but not before filming a membership TV commercial on St Kilda beach - and Riewoldt said he'd love to continue as captain under the new coach.

He was excited about the year ahead and said he had the same positive first impressions of Watters as he did after meeting Ross Lyon for the first time. ''You could tell (Ross) was going to be a good coach and you get the same feeling with Scott," he said. Beautiful. That'll give those success-starved Sainters a reason to sign on again in 2012. 

The Kangaroos are in Utah doing their high-altitude thing, and posting daily reports and interviews on their website. Back in Melbourne, club president James Brayshaw has sent a letter to members urging them to chip in and help the Roos eliminate their debt. They've even got a snappy title for the campaign: Invest in Success.

A little to the west, the Bulldogs got on the track yesterday and new coach Brendan McCartney fronted the media to say his players will be heading 'back to the classroom' to learn the club's new game plan over summer. Not earth-shattering but something for Doggies' fans to chew on.

Over in Adelaide, another new coach, Brenton Sanderson said his team needed to toughen up over summer and have a more physical presence next season. That means plenty of combat wrestling and tackling drills. Crows fans will surely be delighted: at last, they'll be supporting a team with a bit of grunt.

Collingwood, with Nathan Buckley now at the helm, made their statement with a new marketing campaign and membership drive. Its slogan? ''Us against the Rest.'' 

Never mind that their training, as grand finalists, doesn't formally start for another couple of weeks. They had to get out there this week and make a noise, like everyone else.

And there's three more months of this before the first round of the pre-season competition even hoves into view.

Denis Pagan, who coached the Kangaroos to a premiership 12 years ago, has watched the evolution of AFL pre-season with some bemusement.

In 1999, the North players would have a leisurely start to their campaign by blowing out the cobwebs from the Spring Carnival with a few light runs. It was all very low-key. Rarely would a reporter, or TV crew, come out to Arden St. They were all busy covering the cricket or golf or having a break.

Now the AFL news cycle is endless, a 12-month continuum, a whirring, well-oiled hamster wheel.    

Pagan said it was standard practice that clubs who missed the finals began their pre-season training on the Monday after the Melbourne Cup. What has changed, he said, was the level of media interest and the way the clubs were so blatantly out there, selling their message.

''There's a hell of a lot of talk and spin now,'' Pagan said. ''The marketing side of it has been ramped up no end.

''Personally, I reckon you're better off underselling and overachieving.

''But I understand it's all got so competitive now. Each club is chasing members and trying to keep sponsors happy. So you've got to get your message out there.

''And the media plays a part. They're feeding the beast. A journo gets a junket with Carlton on their trip to Abu Dhabi, and he's reporting back every day, the same with North Melbourne in Utah; someone's got a gig there.''

Abu Dhabi, Utah. Ah, how the footy world's changed.

Twelve years ago, North might have gone on a pre-season trip to Lorne or Phillip Island. But to do that today? Nah, not a good look. Where's the positive spin to be had in a grey day at Cowes - when you could be riding camels with the sheikhs and training with gold-plated barbells at the Emirates Palace?