If it wasn’t over before, it is now.

Chris Flannery’s departure to St Helens has brought an end to an era to remember in Sunshine Coast rugby league.

The “Magnificent Seven”, as they were dubbed in this newspaper four years ago, are down to just one.

Back in April, 2003, there were seven former Coast juniors who were regulars in the NRL.

Flannery had won a premiership with the Roosters and went on to play 10 State of Origin matches.

Also back then, Adam Mogg was with the competition-leading Canberra Raiders, Casey McGuire was playing his Mr Fix-it role with the Brisbane Broncos, Ben Ross was beginning to make an impact with Penrith, Craig Hall was on the wing for Newcastle, Jamie Russo was starting for South Sydney and his brother Michael was contracted to the Melbourne Storm.

Ross, who like Flannery won an NRL grand final and went on to Origin level, is the only one of those seven left in the NRL.

The Coast’s contingent numbers just two, with Joel Moon breaking into the Brisbane Broncos’ line-up this season.

McGuire and Mogg left for the Catalans Dragons in France at the end of last season, after both had also made it as far as a Maroons jersey.

Hall was struck down by a knee injury late in his stay at the Knights, signed for English club Wakefield, but then was forced to pull out of that deal, ending his time in the league spotlight.

Jamie Russo moved to Canberra before ending up back in the Queensland Cup with Redcliffe and Burleigh, and his brother, who switched from the Storm to Cronulla, never reached the potential he showed as an Australian Schoolboys captain in 2001.

A serious car accident in 2002 and a bad knee injury hampered his progress.

Having such a strong contingent in the NRL has given the game plenty of extra publicity on the Coast.

Flannery, McGuire, Mogg and Ross, in particular, have been front-page news in this paper and led many sports bulletins on the local television news thanks to their Origin exploits.

Ben is still around, but isn’t impressing as much as the Cronulla Sharks would like, while Joel Moon has yet to confirm he will be a first grade regular for the Broncos, although there is plenty of time for him to do that.

Brisbane certainly think he will, otherwise they wouldn’t just have handed him a new contract.

But apart from him, there aren’t too many other Coast youngsters showing up as potential NRL stars.

Noosa’s Jake Friend, who is contracted to the Roosters, may be the next one.

What has changed since the years when the “Magnificent Seven” were running around as Coast juniors is that AFL and rugby are much greater forces locally.

They have development programs in place and career paths to the elite level available.

The best young talent, like Nicky Price, who starred in the schoolboy rugby final last week, and new Brisbane Lions listed player Daniel Dzufer are no longer destined to be league players as they probably would have been a decade ago.

Another era, with seven Coast products in the NRL, may be some time off or even may not happen again in our lifetime.