It has been eight long seasons since the serial underachieving Reds took part in finals action and while the Brisbane-based franchise has enjoyed its best start to a Super 14 season since 1999, straight-faced coach Ewen McKenzie is in no hurry to discuss the 'f word'.
The Reds, driven by the fluent halves pairing of Quade Cooper and captain Will Genia, have looked like a completely different side under McKenzie - who has already notched three wins for the year, the same tally former mentor Phil Mooney could muster from the whole of last season.
The Reds' renaissance hit its highest point in Sunday's 50-10 demolition of a hapless Western Force side at Suncorp Stadium.
It was the first time the side has strung together back-to-back wins since 2006, their first win over an Australian rival in almost two years, and most notably, their most comprehensive victory ever at Super 14 level.
McKenzie's men are now only one point outside the top four - the sort of platform for a tilt at the finals that so many of the Reds' failed former mentors in the past decade would dream of.
As always though, McKenzie kept his calm and unexcited demeanour in the wash up of Sunday's record-breaking win, stonewalling talk of semi-finals.
"We want to be a competitive team week-in, week-out... we've never talked about ladder position, we've never talked about a number of wins and we won't be talking about that," McKenzie said.
"We'll just get out there and compete, we want to compete every week and let people know that we're serious about our rugby...that's all we've said and that's all we'll be saying."
"We've got a difficult tour coming up and we'll finish where we finish."
The Reds enjoy a bye this round before heading to South Africa where they will tackle the Cheetahs, Sharks and Lions - three sides that have amassed a combined total of two wins.
McKenzie will no doubt be thankful his side is not playing the table-topping Bulls and Stormers away from home, but maintained the trip would be a tricky one.
"That's going to be quite difficult, they are always complicated games in South Africa, but it's a great opportunity nonetheless," he said.
"We just want to knuckle down, we're going to go to South Africa with a bunch of young guys that will be on their first trip."
"You can see plenty of teams have fallen over there already, so we're going to take nothing for granted."
McKenzie could not downplay every facet of the Reds' strong start to the season, and admitted he was glad to see they had proven a few doubters wrong.
"I'm happy, the start has been good. Nobody, except maybe the group itself, has predicted where we'd be right now," he said.
"I think we're still in contention in terms of the ladder, I'm not exactly sure where, but we've got a great opportunity to keep going."
"We're not fighting for credibility at the end of the season, we've got a great opportunity to push forward."
Genia echoed his coach's no-nonsense mantra and was confident his teammates would be able to keep a lid on things.
"You've just got to worry about your opposition week-to-week...you don't look too far ahead of yourselves, if you do that, you're making a mistake," Genia said.
"The boys have learnt the lesson that we need to focus on every