Six Covid-19 lockdowns, nearly as many ministers gone, a corruption scandal, sustained civil unrest and a debilitating fall down slippery stairs - the Andrews government's second term has not been short of drama.
Despite this, the Labor government is on track to win the next election in a year's time.
A Roy Morgan survey published on Thursday has Labor leading the Liberal-National Coalition 59.5 to 40.5 on a two-party preferred basis, while last week's Newspoll has them leading 58 to 42.
Both surveys are an increase on the 57.3 to 42.7 result at the 2018 election, which saw the coalition lose 11 lower house seats including blue-ribbon Hawthorn.
A Roy Morgan survey has Labor leading the Liberal-National Coalition 59.5 to 40.5 on a two-party preferred basis, while last week's Newspoll has them leading 58 to 42 (Pictured: Premier Dan Andrews)
Senior Monash University politics lecturer Zareh Ghazarian said the recent Queensland, Tasmania and WA elections proved the pandemic favours incumbent governments.
'It would probably be infuriating for the opposition. They aren't able to make any meaningful inroads at the moment,' he told AAP.
Dr Ghazarian said while Mr Andrews is a 'polarising figure', thanks in part to his 120 consecutive second wave press conferences, there is still time to reset before the poll.
'Next year they will be able to refresh the narrative, acknowledging that this has been really hard a couple of years but this is the government's agenda moving forward,' he said.
Labor campaign strategist and pollster Kosmos Samaras and Ian Hanke, a long-time Liberal campaigner and political consultant, both agree unless there is a fourth Covid-19 wave, the election will be fought on 'traditional turf'.
Mr Samaras said the Andrews government will focus on infrastructure, jobs, health and education as it has been successful 'getting things done' in these areas to date.
The catchphrase was used repeatedly during the 2018 election, and Mr Andrews has made a recent return to the theme.
Labor campaign strategist Kosmos Samaras said the Andrews' government will focus on infrastructure, jobs, health and education as it has gotten 'things done' in these areas to date
Dr Geoffrey Robinson, a senior lecturer in politics at Deakin University, said the strategy would likely work again
