Cast your mind back three years ago and many unlikely things became popular during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Endless batches of banana bread, Joe Wicks and Zoom quizzes all unfathomably became part of our daily lives, for better or worse. One of the more pleasant habits was the weekly episodes of a Netflix basketball documentary that chronicled, with incredible behind-the-scene footage, Michael Jordan's final season with the Chicago Bulls and their collective quest for a sixth NBA title.
In lieu of live sporting action, this tale of how one of the most dominant sporting dynasties ever assembled was subsequently dismantled - all the while fully aware of their upcoming break-up, only heightening the desire to go out on a high - was simply fascinating.
And so, 'The Last Dance' became the newest addition to the sporting lexicon. And, much like any addition, it wouldn't take long before it veered into the territory of cliche.
Now, any sporting side coming to the end of an era and looking to eke out one last triumph is given the 'last dance' treatment. The temptation is always there to reach for it.
Lionel Messi's whole journey to World Cup glory last year was the premise playing out in real time, while right now, Exeter Chiefs are fully leaning into 'last dance' mode, with much of the crop who brought Premiership and Champions Cup success set to move on.
In their place, it seems, appears to be the planned signatures of half of Welsh rugby. Which brings us onto Welsh rugby's own relationship 'last dance' and why it maybe means something a little different to whenever the term is usually thrown about.
Take Cardiff for instance. Some fans had already banded the final few weeks of this season the 'last dance' amid the likely departures and the late bids for Challenge Cup glory and a United Rugby Championship play-off place.
Dai Young even raised something of a wry smile when the idea of a 'last dance' was put to him last week, admitting that this side - containing many of the players who lifted the Challenge Cup back in 2018 - was reaching the end of its time together.
"If you look at the last six weeks, with nearly every game, we've had someone celebrating a 100th game, 150th game, 200th game or something like that," he said. "This squad has been together for a long, long time. So I think we're getting to a point of natural progression of the squad anyway.
"Even if finance wasn't an issue, I think we're at a point with Cardiff Rugby, as it is now, where the squad would probably start changing quite rapidly.
"They're all roughly the same age and they've played a lot of rugby. That would have happened anyway. It's happened quicker than we would have planned and we're losing one or two players we would have wanted to keep."
Unfortunately, that 'last dance' won't have the Netflix-approved glorious ending. The Challenge Cup dream was extinguished by Benetton, while hopes of a play-off spot are also now over. Instead, Cardiff's 'last dance' will end fighting over the Welsh Shield against the Ospreys at Judgement Day.
But the crucial part of what Young says is about finance. There's arguably a more general 'last dance' for Welsh rugby as it enters a new stripped-down era.
The dismantling of Cardiff is, by and large, out of their own hands. The same can be said for the departures elsewhere. The financial uncertainty that has crippled Welsh rugby will see departures from all four regions as budgets are cut over the coming seasons.
Soon, all four will likely be working with a budget of £4.5 million-a-year. If they're struggling to compete consistently now, why would reducing their spend work any better?
That's the reason Ospreys head coach Toby Booth admitted that he and the other coaches were "nervous about what the future is going to look like". There's even a trepidation around being in the top tier of Europe, from both coaches and fans, given the disparity at play in terms of finances and squad depth.
"Be careful what you qualify for," is as stark a message as any. And when you've got fans actively not wanting to be in the highest possible competition, you know the situation is dire.
Of course, the argument of the Welsh Rugby Union would be to strip everything back and start again with a lower spend in order to make professional rugby in Wales more sustainable to avoid the catastrophe of one side going bust.
Young himself referred to that last week, which is apt given how the late Peter Thomas ensured that the Arms Park side kept going. It wasn't, and maybe still isn't, out of the question that the 'last dance' for one of the Welsh regions could have been painfully permanent.
"To me, the most important thing is that Cardiff Rugby is still here," said Young. "The other three regions are still here. The biggest thing for us is we've got to make sure that what we're looking at here is a springboard to move forward.
"That's what we've all got to get behind. We don't want to be where we are again. Next year will be a tough year for all of us because it's a real readjustment but we can't stay there.
"We have to find a way of pushing ourselves back up and being more competitive moving forward. I haven't got the answers for that at the minute. I don't think anyone does.
"That's the important thing for us is, reset next year, but you can't reset for three or four years. You can't be in the same position for three or four years. We have to find a way we can all move forward together."
What makes the upcoming reset all the more frustrating is we know how things can be when done right. We know the 'Rhondda front-row' - as they're known at the Arms Park - of Kieron Assiratti, Liam Belcher and Corey Domachowski can take apart Sale at scrum time like it's nothing.
We know that the Scarlets can meld swashbuckling style with a bloody-minded grit on the way to a Challenge Cup semi-final. They might yet provide a happy ending to a miserable season.
And we know that the Ospreys, when on their game, can see off the English and French champions in successive weeks.
In a year dominated by doom and gloom, those moments have offered light - albeit tempered by the knowledge that they'll be even harder to conjure moving forward.
Remember, we're only half a decade or so removed from a PRO12 title, a Champions Cup semi-final, a Challenge Cup triumph and a World Cup semi-final. Even in the last five years, there's been two Six Nations titles.
Yet that particular generation has slowly been starved of resources and, as that particular era ends, it's replaced by a new age of living within our much smaller means.
Either we manage to somehow make it work, or we don't.
That's the 'last dance' we're witnessing now. It's not the fairytale ending of the Chicago Bulls.
There's been moments of defiance, both on and off the pitch. But now, as Judgement Day ironically signals the end of this current chapter, it's trepidation that awaits the tightening of belts as the band strikes up for a new dance.
READ MORE:
