KEY POINTS:
The bell is tolling for Waikato, which faces its worst season in the top rugby division for more than 20 years.
New coach Tony Hanks has overseen a start from hell. Winless after the first four rounds and with the old enemy Auckland heading to Hamilton tomorrow, the country's finest rugby stadium might become a graveyard.
What could possibly have gone so wrong for a team that won the national championship for only the second time two years ago, when Warren Gatland was in charge.
Waikato's last ruckus horribilis was in 1985 when they were demoted, only to win promotion after a year in the second division.
Since then, they have had two notably rough starts, in 1991 and 1994, but managed one win from the first four in those seasons against stronger opposition than they have faced so far in 2008.
If the party faithful were to be believed, Waikato and the Chiefs should by now have been riding the crest of a wave with a dynasty established and the ranks stocked with stars in the making.
Instead, the Chiefs continue to fail while Waikato are the Air New Zealand Cup flops although without the threat of relegation attached.
The record is worse when it's consider that battlers Northland, Tasman - the demoted teams-in-waiting - Manawatu and North Harbour have ensured that the Supercar province roared into the rugby season with brakes firmly applied.
As per usual, there is a notable absence of hand-wringing throughout Hamilton, which accepts the mishaps in a way big city teams do not.
Maybe resigned disappointment comes with the territory.
Two titles is a scant delivery on promises down the years.
It is the outlook that must depress the Waikato fans though as they consider a team drained of quality and experience in the tight, and heavily reliant on star imports.
The big names in Waikato are Mils Muliaina, Stephen Donald, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Sione Lauaki and Liam Messam, who were secured from other provinces, while Brendon Leonard and Richard Kahui are the only genuine hometown All Black prospects.
Lauaki and Sivivatu in particular were supposed to provide the attacking threat around the traditional Waikato strengths of four-square forward packs and redoubtable inside backs bludgeoning their way around the paddock.
These were methods to be referred in days past but they are not the keys to success in the modern game.
The sorts of players that Waikato have treasured and produced over the years aren't made for a world of ELVs and it shows.
And even some of the star imports of recent years don't look the sorts to turn things around.
As a key forward, Lauaki is more likely to roll with the big punches rather than orchestrate a turning of the tide, and Sivivatu is in a similar mould.
Deep down, maybe Waikato is troubled by a rugby world of change. The old mentality - the way Waikato has always played its rugby - doesn't work anymore and they can't secure enough imports with the necessary flair to consistently trouble the big boys.
An over simplification perhaps, but a theory to throw into the mix.
And here's another one. This rugby region blew it when they let Gatland go. He had already made significant progress; a man of immense potential who also had his heart in the place.
We'll leave that vexed topic for now, because it is one fans could discuss until the cows come home.
