Just as one-day cricket has run its race, so too it appears has the NAB Cup.
In fact it's hard to remember a more uninspiring edition of the AFL's pre-season competition than this year's version.
The future of the competition which has been played in pre-season since 1988 is very much up in the air given the arrival of the new Gold Coast team in 2011 and West Sydney the following year making the logistics of running an extended home and away season to cater for the new teams as well as the current five week long pre-season competition extremely difficult.
And certainly on the evidence of this year's pre-season competition it appears the fans are losing interest as well.
It has not helped that the AFL's biggest drawcards in Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon and Richmond were all knocked out in the first round as well as the competition's best supported non-Victorian team in Adelaide.
This weekend's quarter-final matches in Melbourne between St Kilda and Sydney and North Melbourne and Fremantle drew miniscule crowds and the upcoming semi-final clashes between the Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide and St Kilda and Fremantle are not likely to attract many more.
But while this year's competition might have lacked the oomph of previous years, salvation could be at hand thanks to the Western Bulldogs.
A Bulldogs win in Friday night's first semi-final against the Power would at least ensure the final of this year's competition will be one to remember.
And that is because the Bulldogs - despite having come so close in recent years with six preliminary final defeats in the past 25 years - have not reached a grand final of any competition at senior level since 1970.
And that was when the forerunner to the current NAB Cup pre-season competition was played as a post-season competition at South Melbourne's old Lakeside Oval and was only open to teams that did not make the finals in the home and away season.
In the real stuff the Dogs last grand final appearance was way back in 1961 and their only premiership was in 1954 while since the modern-day night series/pre-season competition began in 1977 - the Dogs are only one of the original 12 Victorian clubs not to have reached the final with Richmond the only other club not to have won the competition.
So a sheer appearance by the Western Bulldogs in this year's NAB Cup decider and the chance of seeing everyone's second favourite club lift their first trophy in 40 years would give the final on March 13 some much-needed excitement.
As far as the other semi-final is concerned, the result is less important given a St Kilda win would ensure a huge crowd for a Dogs-Saints' decider although St Kilda - despite its own heartbreak in the regular season having lost last year's grand final narrowly to Geelong as it still searches for its first flag since 1966 - has at least enjoyed success in the pre-season competition in recent times having won it in 2004 and 2008.
And if Fremantle should happen to cause an upset and go through to meet the Dogs in the final, we would have the amazing situation of one club (the Dogs) trying to win their first piece of silverware in 40 years against a club that has not come close to lifting a trophy or making a grand final of any description since joining the competition in 1995.
So while winning the NAB Cup might mean little to fans of those clubs who have been spoiled by success, don't begrudge Bulldogs and Dockers' fans in particular a little excitement if their teams progress to the final this coming weekend.
And for the sake of a competition that appears to be running out of steam by the day, the chance to watch two of the league's least successful clubs slug it out in the final might just give the NAB Cup the lift it so badly needs.