The wry smile from Joe Root said it all, as the ball shot along the floor, under his bat and cannoned into the stumps.
Unlike most of his teammates there was absolutely nothing Root could do about the ball from Scott Boland that made him the fifth man out in an improbable run chase.
And signalled the end of the dream of a maiden Test win in Australia at the 14th time of asking.
Root has simply not been able to get the best out of his players at the same time, in the same game, and for long enough to make it count.
An Ashes tour of Australia is not like any other trip that comes along and is just a part of the cut and thrust of the international treadmill.
It requires an almost messianic commitment to your craft. And a willingness to push yourself harder than ever before. It is relentless.
So if you are not in the best shape of your life physically and mentally, or in the form of your life with your cricket skills and decision-making, you will struggle.
The gap you are trying to close with Australia in their own backyard is already a chasm before you even step off the plane.
So a few throwdowns, and a few nets before going into battle is laughably naive. Even with the poor weather they experienced just before Brisbane, game time had to have been found before then.
Basics had to be drilled so that they came naturally. Fielding and catching are obvious areas that let England down badly, but so too bowling no-balls.
Three times by three different England bowlers in the series, wickets were chalked off thanks to no-balls. Incredible.
Injuries always play their part on an Ashes tour and here it ruled out Jofra Archer and Olly Stone before a ball was bowled, but they had Mark Wood, and he was wasted.
No bowler sent down more balls than Wood, and yet more than half of them came after the series was lost! How does that make any sense?
Stuart Broad lives rent free in David Warner’s head and yet the moment that should have set the tone for the series was given away to the Aussies because instead of Broad to Warner it was Mitchell Starc to Rory Burns at the Gabba and frankly England never recovered from 0-1.
But above all else on this tour the one area where England’s failure was so acute was with the bat and this is where the greatest change must now come both at Test level, but also in the domestic game where the talent is developed.
Root has got some ideas for the county game, but for his players too, and they would do well to listen this time.
He said: “How do you fuel yourself from a tour like this? Naturally you're going to hurt and you're going to feel very down, but it's about how you react.
“Can you really harden yourself as a player, use this experience to grow and say 'it's going to make me a better player, I'm going to learn some hard lessons.’
“You’ve got to have a hard look at yourself and ask yourself some tough questions. Am I giving the best account I can of myself?”
Right now the answer across the entire batting group is a resounding no.
