The Canterbury Bulldogs are officially out of finals contention, with the blue and white stumbling last week against the Penrith Panthers and other results going against them to confirm a miserable season will finish without knockout footy.
The only way was supposed to be up this season for the Bulldogs, but the concerns were prevalent probably from about halfway through last year, and never actually corrected themselves.
The simple fact of the matter is, and it doesn't matter how much Cameron Ciraldo and Phil Gould try to bury the issue, the club was blown up halfway through last year.
Reed Mahoney wanted long-term stability at the club, probably a four-year deal, and it wasn't difficult to understand why.
If there wasn't a guy called Harry Grant in front of him, then the ladder-leading dummy half would have played for the Queensland Maroons at State of Origin level.
Instead, the Bulldogs thought Bailey Hayward was going to be their long-term option.
He has certainly improved in attack during the second half of the year, but he was also their ball-playing lock and doing a good job of it last year.
Trying to make him an 80-minute hooker despite his first contact in defence simply not being up to that level was always going to be a recipe for disaster.
Sure, there were the well-noted concerns around Reed Mahoney's discipline, but even then, if you're producing wins and playing good footy, then what exactly is the problem with some niggle?
Mahoney has since gone to Townsville and will play finals this year with the North Queensland Cowboys, who did miss out last year.
He hasn't been their best player, but he has been a very, very strong contributor in the number nine jumper, doing exactly what Bailey Hayward hasn't been able to do for much of the campaign.
Then there was the whole issue around their halves.
The demise of Canterbury really started the moment they were considering Lachlan Galvin.
That is not to put the blame of this season on Galvin.
He has actually been one of the better players for the blue and white, but he has simply played the wrong role.
He is a five-eighth, or a ball-playing lock. He is not an organiser, and that's exactly what the Bulldogs have lacked this year when they shipped Toby Sexton out of the club.
The decision didn't make sense then, and it doesn't make sense now.
When I tipped Canterbury to miss the top eight at the start of the season and was told ad nauseum exactly how wrong I was, it was these issues that were at the top of the mind.
The bottom line is the stats paint a very ugly picture for the Belmore-based club, and they confirm what most fans will already tell you.
That the Canterbury Bulldogs have lacked an organiser.
After nine games last year, the Bulldogs were averaging 27.1 points per game. By the end of the year, that had dropped to 22.25.
Across those 15 games, the Bulldogs scored just 19.3 points per game.
Those numbers went further backwards early this year, with the blue and white averaging just 17.4 points per game across their first nine games.
That has now improved to 19.8 points per game, but it's not exactly the free-flowing attack of last year.
Maybe the biggest indictment on the Bulldogs is that they have had to move State of Origin centre Stephen Crichton into the halves to try and get some level of spark from their spluttering offence.
At the time of his move, Ciraldo suggested it was because he was a better ‘communicator'.
In rugby league speak, that means the spine simply weren't organising anything, and couldn't find their way over the tryline with decent plays.
And that's not rocket science either.
The Bulldogs early season attack was all short balls, end over end kicks and not much else.
Crichton's move into the halves, Galvin starting to grow into his role and far better use of Bailey Hayward has seen the score tick in the right direction for the Bulldogs, but not often enough to get them back into the finals.
They did go on a run of wins that will set some minds at ease about what they might be able to achieve in 2027, but the bottom line is 2026 is a dismal failure for a club who were in the top four last year.
Of course, they weren't the only club to fall from the lofty heights of the top of the table to the bottom half of it, but they were the only club to bring about their own undoing by moving on half of a spine that had them leading the competition.
It might have been Gould's decision ultimately, but the pressure will be on Ciraldo next year.
The man once touted as the greatest coach in the game without a first-grade outing to his name found success at Belmore, and then burned it up.
If he and his coaching staff can't find a way to start next year strongly, the drums will be beating.
