The heartlands have become wastelands.
For the first time ever, in the same year, the cities of Sydney and Melbourne won't host a preliminary final in the AFL or NRL.
And there's the prospect of the showpiece NRL and AFL grand finals not featuring a team from the cities which gave birth to their beloved football codes in Australia.
Welcome to truly national football competitions, where the power bases have shifted from the heartland states.
A repeat of 2006 is on the cards when the NRL and AFL grand finals were contested by clubs from outside of the heartland states.
(For the record, in 2006 Brisbane beat Melbourne in the NRL, and West Coast pipped Sydney in the AFL).
But never in the same year have all preliminary finals in both codes been played outside the heartland cities.
Melbourne, the self-proclaimed sporting capital of the nation - some Victorians say universe - will be without an AFL preliminary final for the first time since 2006. That is the only year it has happened before.
Melbourne has some experience of hosting grand finals without a Victorian club participating - in 2004, 2005 and 2006, no Victorian club made the premiership decider.
But Sydney has never experienced anything like this before: preliminary final weekend without a game in the harbour city.
Instead, Brisbane host the Sydney Roosters and Melbourne host Townsville in the prelims.
Those fixtures toss up the possibility of an all-Queensland decider. And only the Roosters can save Sydney from a grand final without a local club.
The AFL and Melbourne are grappling with a similar thought: the potential for an all-West Australian grand final.
Perth is hosting both preliminary finals, though at least they feature two Victorian clubs.
But if Hawthorn fall to Fremantle, and North Melbourne can't get past West Coast, the AFL will have its first-ever WA derby as a grand final.
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