It did not come soon enough to save Australia's Ashes campaign, but their start to the final Test against England showed the lessons of crushing Edgbaston and Trent Bridge defeats were being heeded.
It showed it was possible for an Australian team to get the better of an opponent through defence, when the conditions demanded it, rather than attack. Their near-compulsion to get bat on ball brought their downfall in the preceding two Tests.
England did not bowl as well early at the Oval as they had in those preceding two Tests, but the dramatic improvement in Australia's fortunes batting first was more so due to them forcing Stuart Broad and co to bowl at their stumps rather than simply near their stumps, which Broad noted in a backhanded compliment to opener David Warner. 
"Broady said to me it was like Angus Fraser bowling to Mark Taylor out there," said Warner, in reference to the dour now-retired England fast bowler and equally dour Australian opener.
England's other new-ball bowler, Mark Wood, noted how much more regularly Warner and Chris Rogers had left the ball compared to what the Australians as a whole had done in Birmingham and Nottingham.
"Sometimes you just have to say hats off to them, well played," he said. "I actually think we bowled quite well. We stuck at it all day and the intensity was there.
"There was no complacency in terms of 'It's the last game and the Ashes are secured'."
Australia's resolute approach meant they did not concede a wicket in the first 33 overs of the opening day nor in the last 45. Warner and Rogers provided the former, while Steve Smith and Adam Voges provided the latter.
Even though the Rogers-Warner partnership has only existed for two years, their day-one partnership of 110 moved them alongside Bill Lawry and Bob Simpson to third for most century stands from Australian openers, behind only Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer with 14 and Taylor and Michael Slater with 10.
Their latest century stand improved their frequency of achieving the milestone to once every 4.6 innings, behind only Invincibles Sid Barnes and Arthur Morris with one every 4.3.
A hallmark of Rogers' career has been his ability to regularly survive periods where he was not batting anywhere near his best. Smith had faced the same predicament.
His past four Test innings had been single-figure scores, he fell for a duck in last weekend's tour match and he looked conspicuously awkward in the nets in the lead-up to this Test.
The incoming Test captain started at the Oval in the same fashion. He battled so hard early that he lamented to Warner, his partner at the time, how he "had no rhythm".
But he fought through it, and by the end of the day had come close to matching Warner's 85 at the top of the innings, making England's bowlers pay for being slightly short of their best. "Today it just looked like they probably didn't hit their right lengths. For a lot of the time out there I felt like they bowled just a fraction too short," Warner said.
"In every other game they've bowled fantastically, put it up there and allowed us to try and drive. We've been getting the odd one away and then the nicks are coming. The way he [Smith] addressed the conditions and adapted to it was fantastic. He's one of those kids who's going to have a very successful career. He's shown what he can do. He's the next captain as well. He's in a good position, that's for sure, moving forward."
Another player to emerge from day one with credit was Voges.
Australia's series defeat, and the expectation of a squad overhaul it has triggered, has clouded the future of the 35-year-old, who failed in his first six innings of the series.
If Voges is in line to follow retiring veterans Clarke and Rogers out of the team he is making a late bid to get selectors to change their mind.
The right-hander looked just as solid as Smith, if not more so, on the opening day, and was just three runs from a second consecutive half-century when bad light brought an early end to play.
Even though Warner's dismissal was not due to aggression, the left-hander was nevertheless fuming at falling 15 runs short of his first century in England.
After he edged Moeen Ali to Adam Lyth he swung his bat in anger as he began his walk back to the dressing room. It was the fourth time in the series the left-hander had fallen to the gentle off-spin of Ali, something he admitted he had not contemplated.
"I didn't come here thinking he would get me out four times," said Warner.
"At the moment natural variation has helped him. He's bowled well and that is something I have to work on.
"The same delivery he bowled me the over before went on [instead of turning], but we spoke about natural variation on the wicket here on day one in England. That one caught the edge."
That dismissal meant Warner has fallen to off-spin in just over a quarter of his 78 Test dismissals, most often against India's R.Ashwin (six).
It was, however, his best first-innings contribution for Australia since his century against India in last summer's SCG Test.


SCOREBOARD
AUSTRALIA: 1st innings   R M B 4s 6s
C Rogers c Cook b Wood          43 151 100 7 0
D Warner c Lyth b Ali             85 206 131 11 0
S Smith not out              78 209 132 9 1
M Clarke c Buttler b Stokes          15 42 29 1 0
A Voges not out               47 109 87 8 0
Sundries (1b, 16lb, 1w, 1nb)       19
TOTAL (for three wickets)          287
FALL: 110 (Rogers), 161 (Warner), 186 (Clarke).
BOWLING: S Broad 15-3-43-0, M Wood 18-5-41-1 (1w), B Stokes 16-5-59-1, S Finn 20.4-2-78-0 (1nb), M Ali 10-1-49-1.
BATTING TIME: 361 mins. OVERS: 79.4.
STUMPS, day one