For the first time in the five years of Super Rugby Pacific, there will be no Australian involvement in the semifinals. After the Brumbies and Reds were beaten in week one of the playoffs, the competition will feature two Kiwi derbies in its final four.
That result will thrill New Zealand rugby fans, so too incoming All Blacks coach Dave Rennie, but for Rugby Australia, competition administrators, and Aussie broadcast partners Stan Sport, it is the exact outcome they were trying to avoid.
Where the Brumbies have been the standout Australian team in seasons' past - and could have actually hosted the final in 2025 had it not been for an erroneous call in the final weekend of the regular season - in 2026 the four Aussie franchises were more evenly matched.
That made for some closely-fought Australian derbies, but more importantly saw them finish in ladder positions 5-8. And you don't need to be a historian to know how tough it is to win in another country during the Super Rugby finals.
After the weekend's results, Australia's collective finals record in New Zealand is 0-23. The Reds at least made a game of it against the Chiefs in Hamilton, but it was clear after only seven minutes that the Brumbies would suffer a Hurricanes hammering - and the 54-point margin was an accurate measure of the distance between positions 1 and 6 on the ladder this year.
Barring an extraordinary turnaround in form this Saturday, the Blues are unlikely to fare much better in Wellington either.
Meanwhile, the competition's format for next season remains a key point of discussion following the impending demise of Moana Pasifika, who despite recent reports of an 11th hour rescue package and even a possible move to Hawaii, will not be a part of Super Rugby next year.
Ultimately, the framework for next season, which is poised to include a week off to stage an historic Anzac Day Test between the Wallabies and All Blacks in Brisbane, boils down to a battle between broadcast appeal and competition integrity.
Does a conference format, favoured by broadcasters, really deliver the compelling rugby the competition needs, or does it merely reward mediocrity, particularly at the business end of the season?
If a top-six finals system was to be retained as part of a conference format, the Reds, as the highest placed Australian team, could well be given the first week of the finals off, before hosting a semifinal in the second week of the playoffs.
Does a team that finished with an 8-6 record this year, and a -22 points differential, really deserve such a prized postseason fixture? Not even Pinocchio could accept that with a straight face, even less so his nose in place.
On their day, Les Kiss' Reds were a much better team than that record suggests. The issue for Kiss - who now moves to the Wallabies - was that those days were simply too few and far between.
Conversely, that same format could deliver a playoff match involving not just an Australian team, but a game played in Australia, in two of the three weeks of the finals. The tradeoff would be one fewer game in the postseason, but that would be a small broadcast price to pay to avoid the situation Super Rugby is in this week.
But such a postseason format cuts to the core of competition integrity and the forgettable convoluted years of the 18-team Super Rugby format which, despite delivering a worthy champion in the incomparable Crusaders, left the broader fanbase confused and disappointed when it came to finals footy.
And when Dan McKellar, the coach of a Waratahs team who missed the finals for a second straight season and for whom job speculation is an ongoing bedfellow, calls for a home-and-away format, there really should be no debate at all.
Simply, Australia's four teams need to improve. The Brumbies have shown in seasons' past that performing to a top-three marker is achievable, and aspiration should always trump concession.
It is however likely that the broadcasters win out, and a conference system returns in some form. The ongoing push for a global calendar and sheer amount of rugby the players can handle is also a significant stumbling block to a full home-and-away season.
But if the Australian rugby collective is serious about returning the game to its glory days Down Under, then it should sit and watch this weekend's semifinals through gritted teeth and demand better of itself moving forward.
Second best can't be good enough. And fourth and sixth best this season got exactly what they deserved last weekend.