The gloomy conditions at the SCG on Monday were similar to what greeted Michael Clarke during pivotal starts to the Ashes Tests at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge.
Clarke was this time on the other side of the boundary, as a retired player now engaged in TV punditry, but would have seen a similar thing to what he saw a few months ago as captain: his pacemen swinging it, but only in one direction.
Only 11.2 overs were bowled for the day, during which the West Indies moved from 6-207 to 7-258 for the loss of only Carlos Brathwaite, for 69 from just 71 deliveries. 
Once Australia bowled the five overs required on day two to obtain the second new ball they took it immediately.
Josh Hazlewood made a very encouraging start, twice having Denesh Ramdin trying and failing to drive him down the ground.
What made those deliveries in his first over particularly impressive was that while the first swung away the second at least held its line into the right-hander.
Unfortunately for Australia, that unpredictably was not seen for the rest of Hazlewood's spell, which was limited to 21 deliveries due to the rarely relenting rain in Sydney.
It was not that Hazlewood bowled badly. He was getting consistent swing away from the right-handers, Ramdin and Brathwaite.
James Pattinson did likewise at the other end. Even though he was struck for two fours and two sixes with the new ball by Brathwaite he thrice had the towering batsman attempting to play the ball into the leg-side only to underestimate the swing away from him. The third of those cost Brathwaite his wicket, as he played inside the line and was bowled by a fast outswinger. Still, he was able to walk off with applause having struck 11 boundaries in notching his second half-century in just his third Test innings.
Even with that strike, and Hazlewood conceding only three runs from the 21 deliveries he bowled with the new ball, there was a flaw: both paceman were only swinging the ball away from the right-handers, which included Brathwaite's replacement Kemar Roach.
For Hazlewood in particular, it meant batsmen could cope with the swing because the consistency of it meant they could leave deliveries pitched on off-stump or wider.
In Clarke's recently released Captain's Diary 2015 he said one of the reasons he was so impressed by England's Ben Stokes in Nottingham, as he claimed 6-36 in the second innings, was that he swung the ball both ways.
When Hazlewood, Mitch Starc and Mitch Johnson swung the ball they all typically did it in the same direction: away from the right-handers and into the left-handers.
Hazlewood's control with the swing was far better that it was for much of the series in England. What he must work on with bowling coach Craig McDermott over the next few years, with the 2019 Ashes series in mind, is either a genuine inswinger or at the very least more deliveries with the new ball that hold their line.
Pattinson's speciality is outswing, at good pace. He showed his ability to swing it into the right-hander came in Cape Town in 2014, when he achieved conventional swing away from right-handers with the new ball and then the other direction when the ball was worn enough. The right-armer also did it in Melbourne last week.
Given the second new ball is only 6.2 overs old, Hazlewood and Pattinson will, weather permitting, have the opportunity to take the West Indies' last wickets quickly. It is unrealistic to expect them to learn and demonstrate conventional inswing on a whim, but if they can gradually learn to do it then opposing batsmen will be much more apprehensive facing them when the ball is swinging.