The 'Cane train has been derailed.
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It may have begun the Big Bash League season like The Flying Scotsman, but ended like Toby from Thomas the Tank Engine.
Having won nine of their first 10 matches, the Hobart Hurricanes hit the buffers, losing four of their last six.
Coincidentally, that was also about the time Johan Botha's back gave out and Riley Meredith's radar began to resemble MH370's.
In a season big on hope but familiarly small on silverware, losing Botha for five of those last six was pivotal.
The big hitting of D'Arcy Short and Matthew Wade, and to a lesser degree Ben McDermott and George Bailey, was no longer enough to guarantee victories.
Like Perth Scorchers last season, and just about every minor premier before that, being the competition's benchmark team counts for nothing in finals.
In a dairy-themed metaphorical scramble, the policy to over-milk the cash cow left Cricket Australia with egg on its face
Reflecting on the Hurricanes' campaign, and indeed the competition as a whole, is an agonisingly frustrating exercise - akin to defleaing a particularly scruffy dog.
After 59 games, it does feel like the season went on longer than Brexit negotiations, and at times was about as interesting.
I love the Big Bash, it's one of the few things on TV that more than one member of my family watch at once - like Death In Paradise (before it got stupid) and Shaun The Sheep.
But this season there were nights when games were on and I couldn't be bothered watching them. Me not watching live sport is like Clive Palmer walking past a buffet.
In a dairy-themed metaphorical scramble, the policy to over-milk the cash cow left Cricket Australia with egg on its face.
The number of games may have been up but attendances were way down.
The combined crowd figures from this season’s semi-finals (12,404 and 15,342) was only just over half of last season’s first semi (52,960).
The Hurricanes were a prime example. Their average home crowd plummeted from 12,736 last season to 10,417 (the Adelaide Oval from 40,478 to 28,095 and SCG from 25,239 to 17,798), with the capital’s support particularly concerning.
Hobartians complained long and loud when one, then two, of the team's home fixtures were scheduled for UTAS Stadium, but for the second season running a team called Hobart attracted its biggest crowd in a city called Launceston.
In fact, Thursday's turnout for a cut-throat semi-final was less than both the attendances in Launceston for roster games.
The team may be called Hobart but its supporter-base appears to be anything but.
Which was a shame because the side produced entertainment aplenty.
Adam Griffith's men scored 300 more runs than any other franchise, finishing the season with four of the top eight run-scorers.
Short (637), Wade (592), McDermott (376) and Bailey (366) all scored more than any batsman from semi-finalists Sydney Sixers or Melbourne Renegades.
Unsurprisingly, Short and Wade also topped tables for most fours and sixes, produced three of the top five highest opening partnerships (120, 95 and 87) and were favourites for the player of the tournament award won by Short last year.
Averaging 42.29 at a strike-rate of 146.90, the Hurricanes captain and newly-crowned domestic player of the year also claimed the third most dismissals by a wicket-keeper - so many that he gloved another in the semi and didn't even seem to notice.
Australian selectors might want to re-read the last few paragraphs. If they can read.
All of which counted for nothing as the knockout stages continued their habit of silencing big guns.
Watched by rival Tasmanian leaders Tim Paine, Ricky Ponting and Will Hodgman, Wade fell for just his fourth single-digit score in 15 innings this season.
When Dan Worrall had the hosts at 2-5, they were facing a mountain of Mount Wellington proportions.
Teenage Afghan leg-spinner Qais Ahmad's 3-33 provided the latest of many positives from the season, but the rest of the contest was as painful as Bailey's right shoulder.
The 36-year-old former captain - whose apparent dislocation in the closing stages summed up his team's night - has been among many to suggest that an Indian Premier League-style finals format should be introduced to give the minor premiers a second chance.
Doubtless, Cricket Australia will tinker before next season begins (probably next week).
The Hurricanes have twice been beneficiaries of the current system (2014 and '18) but will almost certainly now see things differently having produced the most mouth-watering of campaigns but been left with no chocolates bar the complimentary ones from their sponsors.