Australia's long-time success in the men's four appears to have been a casualty of a Rowing Australia call to chase elusive gold in the eight, with the smaller crew missing the podium in Paris.
Since the arrival of the "Oarsome Foursome" at the Barcelona Olympics, the Australians have had a love affair with the four.
From that 1992 Games, Australian crews have won seven medals including three gold in the event, with the last coming in Tokyo, and they haven't finished worse than second in 16 years.
Opting to go after Australia's first-ever Olympic gold medal in the men's eight, Rowing Australia (RA) decided to put three of the Tokyo champions, Spencer Turrin, Jack Hargreaves and Alex Purnell, in that crew, leaving Alex Hill in the four.
He was joined by Olympic debutants Jack Robertson and Fergus Hamilton plus Tim Masters, who was part of the eight in Tokyo.
But the Paris crew, who only had two international regattas together, finished last in the final at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium course on Thursday.
Racing against crews who had had two years together, including the three medallists - USA, New Zealand and Great Britain - winning a medal was always a tall task.
"You learn a lot every single race you're together, so of course everyone's going to want to have had more race experience together," said 26-year-old Robertson.
"We're not saying that that's unfair but of course it could be useful to have had more races under your belt but you take the cards you're dealt. Rowing Australia decided to go with a new combination this year.
"Of course we would have liked to do better but we're proud of each other and we left it out there and we're still coming away heads held high."
The final of the men's eight is on Saturday (local time) but the decision to prioritise the big boat doesn't look like it will pay off with the Australians fourth in the repechage race, although still advancing to the medal decider.
Hill said he had confidence the eight could improve on their patchy form before the final.
"They've got really good athletes in that in that crew and I've got no doubt they'll turn it around when they go out and race again," he said.
"Obviously they're not where they want to be but let's just see what happens. I have confidence in them."
In other racing, the women's eight were third in their repechage to also advance to Saturday's final.
Tara Rigney finished a close second in her semi-final behind single sculls world champion Karolien Florijn.
Reigning Olympic champion Kiwi Emma Twigg won the other semi-final in the fastest time of the day.
Rigney is looking to become the first Australian medallist in the event since her mentor Kim Brennan won gold in the event in Rio in 2016.
The women's doubles sculls outfit of Amanda Bateman and Harriet Hudson were left to wonder what might have been.
The duo missed qualifying for the A final by 0.22 seconds but then won the B final on Thursday with a time almost three seconds faster than gold medallists New Zealand.
In other medal races, Romania won the men's doubles sculls and the Netherlands won the women's four.
