That there is even a need to search for silver linings from Australia's performance in Darwin reinforces how badly it went for them. There weren't many, either, but Cameron Green's first Test century on home soil was the clubhouse leader.
Having made his Test debut nearly six years ago, it had been a long time coming. In last season's Ashes, he scored 270 runs at 24.42 which included the extraordinary dismissal at the Gabba when he backed away against a yorker. There were questions over him retaining his place for this series, although in reality he was never going to be left out, at least for now. Australia need Green to make a success of Test cricket.
He admitted to "conflicting feelings" given the hundred came in perhaps the biggest upset in Test history, but it meant Australia did leave Darwin with one batting spot more secure than when the game started.
After, at times, trying to thrash England's bowlers last summer, it was a century that followed a much more controlled model that has served Green well at the first-class level, where his ability to methodically, but still imposingly, build innings (and still move through the gears) is what marked him out in his early days.
It also came after Pat Cummins had talked about Green "asserting" himself at the crease prior to the first Test, although after the match coach Andrew McDonald reinforced that talk of intent did not mean "all-out attack".
Speaking to reporters in Mackay on Thursday, at a ground where he flayed 118 off 55 balls in an ODI against South Africa last year, Green detailed some technical tweaks that had returned his red-ball batting to a method more natural to him.
"I'd normally like to be reasonably front on, bat on middle stump, and just have a really clear, simple game plan," he said. "Over the previous years, I tried to get to off stump, try to play probably a slightly more aggressive game early rather than just letting it happen.
"I think it was just going back to what actually feels really natural to me. Obviously, Travis Head is an unbelievable cricketer, and he seems to be a guy that can hit shots from ball one. That's never really been me. So it's just going back to what feels right for me, what I've done my whole life. It felt nice the other day."
Green pinpointed his century for Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield late last season - which ended with him having a brief argument with a journalist as the strains of the summer came to the surface - as a key moment in starting to emerge from his difficult Ashes. Green made notes about that hundred to remind himself what worked given it was followed by a heavy white-ball schedule.
A run-a-ball 13 in the first innings in Darwin, which ended with a chip to midwicket on the stroke of lunch, did not immediately ease the pressure. He had a significant stroke of fortune early in the second innings when an inside edge off Taskin Ahmed clipped leg stump without the force to dislodge the bails, but from there he was in control until one kept low. Although partly due to a lush outfield, it was notable that his century included just four fours and a six; his fifty came from 109 balls, the hundred needed another 83.
"You try and write down notes because it's a long time since we played a red-ball game, so I tried to write down a few notes from what worked in that Shield game," he said. "We had a [T20] World Cup, IPL, and some one-dayers in between, so it's nice to go back to what did work, and try to remind yourself of that.
"When you're trying to force it, you want to do really well when you're playing for Australia, sometimes you try to force those results, and unfortunately, in Test cricket you can't score a hundred within ten overs, you have to bat a few hours to get there, and when you feel like you're forcing it, you're trying to rush it too quick, so trying to get into that tempo that does work."
While the immediate priority is squaring the Test series in Mackay, there are some big decisions looming for Green and the selectors, which reinforce the challenges of being a three-format player.
There are six ODIs in September, and Green is still being bedded into a role for next year's World Cup, so whether to miss those and focus purely on the red-ball into the South Africa Test series is not a simple one. Next year, the IPL will again loom large, on the back of five Tests in India, with the Ashes to follow, a schedule that challenged Green in 2023 when he ultimately lost his Test place late in England.
"It's going to be a really tough 12 months, we've got the three hardest away tours, South Africa, India and England, coming up as well as a World Cup, so it's reasonably daunting, but also exciting for this group," Green said. "We had a pretty similar schedule in 2023, and had a really successful year, so we're hoping for the same."
After the events of Darwin, there are questions as to how Australia will stand up to what's ahead but, for Green at least, the outlook is brighter.