For the Magpies it has been a tiring and unsettling season. For the Magpies supporters it has been a ... tiring and unsettling season.
Things have not gone too well and the results of the season have drawn a veil over what was posted on the Magpies website before the first kick-off of the year.
It was optimism personified and stated "Hawke's Bay suffered the anguish of demotion from the Mitre 10 Cup Premiership last year in a frustrating season but have put some strong building blocks in place to climb out of the Championship as quickly as possible".
That was kind of like a commentator's curse when a batsman is on 99: "He's set to score a fine century" ... and then he gets bowled.
So here we are at the tail end of another "frustrating season" and I feel there need to be some changes made as the Magpies and their rugby union crew put together the last outing at McLean Park against Manawatu.
The Turbos are traditional foes from the other side of the Manawatu Gorge, which like our defensive systems is prone to slips every now and then, so it should be a fine game.
A game which will, of course feature, the familiar theme tune Come on the Bay but I think on that musical front, in terms of pledging support to a team clearly in need of support, they should dig out the old David Soul song Don't Give Us On Us Baby.
Or maybe slightly rejig the old Tammy Wynette hit Stand By Your Man to Stand By Your Men.
Because despite the slightly disturbing match statistics which clearly indicate hammerings by the likes of Taranaki, Otago, Canterbury, Wellington and Bay of Plenty it would be rather splendid to end the season the way they started it. With a win.
To an old boy of the Bay like me these are simply our Magpies, our team, and I'll always cheer them and I'll take the bad with what will, in time I'm sure, be the good.
There's another song they could line up, Howard Jones' 1985 hit: Things Can Only Get Better.