PERSPECTIVE
Getting our hopes up like that - we all should have known better. We allowed ourselves to be swept up in a wave of blind optimism. The sad reality, of course, is there wasn't anything remotely surprising about the Black Caps' less than impressive showing against a largely second-string Australian line-up.
It has been 26 years since we last won a test on Australian soil and disappointment has been the norm, not the exception, since.
CAPITULATION
New Zealand has lost its last five tests in Australia, and some of the efforts in the second innings have been every bit as bad as the 150 the Blacks Caps managed last week.
In two tests in 2008, the Blacks Caps scraped together 203 and 177 in their second innings, and four years earlier they scored 250 and 76. In the last five tests in Australia, New Zealand averages a gritty 171.2 from its second innings.
Here are a few words you won't read to describe that effort - resolve, guts and determination.
PATIENCE
It is pronounced "pay-shens", not "paste-it". You simply cannot win a test on the first morning no matter how many times you slice a thick edge down to the third man boundary. You can lose the game during the first session, though. And at 94 for four at lunch in Brisbane the Blacks Caps had laid a solid foundation for their eventual demise.
Playing positively is all well and good, but you need to give yourself the best chance of success. If that means leaving the odd delivery outside the off stump, then so be it. A dot ball is not a failure. Test cricket is played over five days, not two hours. And that is plenty of time to wear down the bowling attack and put some runs on the board.
RESTRAINT
Timing is everything in cricket and the moment to launch into an expansive drive is not five minutes before lunch on day one when your side has already lost three wickets. Captain Ross Taylor should and does know better - he just couldn't seem to help himself. His untimely dismissal was reckless and inexcusable.
New Zealand has a batting line-up with instinctive stroke-makers who are wonderful to watch when they get going. But perhaps there is one dasher too many in the top five.
COMPLACENCY
There is a sense that one or two of the Black Caps think a quick 30 or 40 is enough to keep them in the side. Well, no-nonsense coach John Wright has put his batsmen on notice. The former opening batsman still has faith in the players he has selected, but another embarrassing batting collapse could see some blood-letting.
PERMUTATIONS
BJ Watling scored 150 against Otago before he joined the Black Caps in Australia. He shapes as the obvious replacement if things get worse. But another option might be to shift the solid Dean Brownlie up the order to make room for James Franklin or a wildcard such as Colin de Grandhomme.
The Zimbabwean-born all-rounder has scored two hundreds in the Plunket Shield this season and, in 37 first-class games for Auckland, he has scored 1807 at an average of 37.64. He has also taken 46 wickets at 31.21.
HAUNTING
Talk about the ghost of selections past. Old Mathew Sinclair has been the country's best domestic batsman year after year after year. Incredibly, he has scored more than 12,500 first-class runs and has 33 first-class hundreds to his name - two of which were scored this year - and still cannot get a look-in.
PREMONITION
Australia to win the series 2-0.
