IT'S that time of year again, with political conference season kicking off this week with Plaid Cymru.

While last year they had the good manners to hold their conference on the Argus' doorstep at the Riverfront Theatre, this year your fearless politics reporter has to trek all the way the way up to Llangollen to see what Leanne Wood et al have to say for themselves.

Unfortunately for them, it's looking a lot like we're going to see a repeat of last year, with the whole event overshadowed by one man, in the shape of South Wales Central AM Neil McEvoy.

This time last year the divisive figure had been suspended from the Assembly's Plaid group following allegations of bullying by a Cardiff Council employee.

When he turned up at the conference he was welcomed by a crowd of supporters waving placards - an event he insisted he hadn't organised, but did little to discourage, with a picture from the impromptu rally pinned to the front of his Twitter profile ever since.

Unfortunately, this overshadowed the majority of discussions and coverage surrounding the conference, hardly ideal for a party which was coming off a fairly successful Assembly Election and gearing up to the Local Government Election.

And you could be forgiven for thinking it was Groundhog Day earlier this week when, just four days before the party was due to kick off this year's spring conference, Mr McEvoy was kicked out of Plaid for 18 months for allegedly breaching party rules.

So once again Neil McEvoy is going to be all anyone is talking about when Plaid would much rather people listened to their ideas for the next 12 months.

For his part, the South Wales Central AM, now sitting as one of three Independents in the Assembly, has said he'll appeal the decision and insists he'll still attend this weekend's conference. Presumably his supporters are dusting off their placards as you read this.

But, crucially, if the decision is upheld he'll reportedly be unable to be selected as one of the party's regional AMs for the 2021 Assembly Election.

He will still be able to run as a constituency AM on an Independent ticket. But with that comes more risk - assuming he'd stand in one of the Cardiff seats, a reasonable prediction given his current region, he could be up against some very well-established Labour figures, including Mark Drakeford and Vaughan Gething, both favourites to succeed Carwyn Jones as first minister when the time comes. It would take an awful lot to unseat any of them.

But then, if Mr McEvoy has proven anything, he's not a man to give up easily. And that could prove to be his saving grace.

And, of course, unless the sky falls in, the election is still three years away, which is a very, very long time in politics.

As a sidenote, it's worth noticing, of the three Independent AMs, two formally represented Plaid Cymru.

Dafydd Elis-Thomas was one of the party's elder statesman, first elected to Parliament 44 years ago in 1974. But, having never left anyone in any doubt about his low opinion of the leadership of Leanne Wood, he quit the party in 2016 and was rewarded with a job on Carwyn Jones' front bench in November last year.

Losing not one, but two AMs, including one with the pedigree of Lord Elis-Thomas, hardly speaks volumes about control of discipline in Plaid's ranks.

The fact that it took Plaid down from second-largest party in the Assembly following the 2016 election to third behind the Conservatives, assuming you count Mark Reckless, who is a member of the Assembly's Conservative group but not formally a member of the party, is something of a blow for the party which looked to be on the up just a couple of years ago.

Although there's some way to go until Welsh voters return to the polling booths, Plaid are going to have to start looking very closely at themselves if they really want to make political headway.

For our sake, let's hope they get their act together. Even if you disagree with them politically, a diverse representation both in the Assembly and Parliament, as well as in councils, is good for everyone.

Otherwise we're left with the same old Labour-Conservative divide. And that's just boring.