Shelley Watts can hardly contain her excitement. "Oh. My. God," she says down the phone before an afternoon training session at the Australian Institute of Sport. "But the big question is what are we going to do without Issac Luke?"
Fair question. The news of the return of Sam Burgess has given the Commonwealth champion boxer and Souths tragic an undisputed buzz, even if she can't shake that nagging feeling of who will provide the punch out of dummy-half next season. 
That's for Michael Maguire to worry about. Watts has enough fish in the pan of her own and she intends to fry all of them in 2016, including Katie Taylor, the Irish pin-up of women's boxing, defending Olympic gold medallist and reigning lightweight world champion. It was Taylor who became one of the most uplifting and compelling stories of London 2012, where women's boxing was on trial for the world to see and ultimately be convinced not only of its worth but its quality.
And it is Taylor whom Watts must not only equal but best if she is to fulfil her dream in the Olympic ring. Like any good fighter, she has little doubt she can rise to the occasion, and win Australia's first boxing medal since Spike Cheney's silver in 1988.
Watts and Taylor have never fought and it remains a distant reality at this stage, given the arduous qualifying path that Australian fighters must negotiate should they even want to tape up the hands in Brazil.
But just the thought of it - the electricity of a medal bout in Rio, taking on an all-time great - has Watts ready to do whatever it takes to get there.
"Katie Taylor, she's been there for 10 years. But I can't wait for the opportunity to jump in the ring with her. At the world championships last year, I was on track to fight her and I was beaten by the silver medallist in the quarters. I was probably guilty of looking too far ahead," Watts admits.
"When the time comes, I'd love nothing more. To be the best you have to fight the best. It would be insane ... I get shivers just thinking about it now."
For Australia's Olympic aspirants, the first steps to Rio begin on the Gold Coast this week when curiously, the 2016 Australian championships are held early to accommodate the hectic Rio qualifying schedule.
That road now leads through Asia, not Oceania, which means a far more treacherous path to the Games.
For the men, it looks particularly menacing, given only two of the nine-strong team won a fight at   October's world championships.
It is in the women's ranks where the better prospects appear to lie, with Watts, a former lawyer who now trains full time in Canberra, leading the way after her Commonwealth Games triumph in 2014 and a recent seven-fight undefeated streak overseas, which included victory in the Queens Cup in Germany.
Now she's ready to be the face of Australia's fighting sports at Rio, if need be, welcoming any pressure or expectation after seeing gold medal winners Anna Meares and Sally Pearson rise to the occasion in London.
"I was lucky enough to forge some friendship in the village with people like Anna Meares and Sally Pearson. I won't be overwhelmed when I walk into the Olympic Stadium and see all these amazing athletes," Watts said. "I realised I deserve to be there just as much as someone like Anna Meares. We all work hard at what we do."