On Tuesday, Australia captain Pat Cummins and coach Andrew McDonald flanked Cameron Green as the trio walked side-by-side for three full laps of Darwin's Marrara Oval, the ground adjacent to the main stadium, at the start of the team's training session.
It was slightly unusual because of how the team likes to function in terms of individuals often training on their own timelines. Josh Inglis, Jake Weatherald and Mitchell Starc were doing some shuttle runs on the outfield. Nathan Lyon was already bowling on the centre-wicket as Alex Carey kept to him. Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne were headed to the nets with assistant coaches.
Conversations between leaders and players do often happen throughout sessions. But this was elongated and slightly out of sync with the normal rhythm of an Australia training session, albeit very common in the broader field of professional cricket.
It also happened in full view of a large group of media assembled on the outfield to speak to Beau Webster, who was ironically saying he felt like he belonged in Test cricket and that he didn't feel like he was in direct competition with Green.
Forty-eight hours later, Cummins confirmed the pair would be in the same XI for the first Test against Bangladesh and also confirmed Green would move up to No. 5 to replace the retired Usman Khawaja, having slid from No. 5 to Nos. 7-8 in his last four Test innings during the Ashes, which ended on January 8.
As Australia begin a 12-month run of 20 Tests, possibly 21, with an ageing team, getting the best out of their only player aged under 30 is pivotal to both the success of the group over the period and its transition to a new generation, which could potentially happen simultaneously.
"He's had a bit of time to think about his own game, and the good thing is he's played quite a lot now in his Test career," Cummins said of Green on match eve. "He's had moments where it's worked, moments where it hasn't. So I think it's that journey of most cricketers, particularly batters - it's a really tough job being the finished product when you're young. I think now the job for someone like Cam, he's 27, is distilling the lessons from his career so far and working out what he is, how he plays when he's at his best.
"I think it's no secret: we like [it] when he's nice and busy and putting pressure back on the bowlers [and] is really intimidating. Same when he's bowling, having that presence, he's quite an intimidating sight when he gets going. So just you take a lot of confidence from [him] being out there and kind of asserting himself in the game."
It's clear those were the messages that were being reinforced by Cummins and McDonald to Australia's youngest player on Tuesday.
Australia remain confident Green can become a key and consistent contributor with bat and ball in Test cricket, just as he has been in first-class cricket for Western Australia, and are happy to keep faith.
But the Australian public has lost faith. Despite the age of the team, the majority view Green as one of the most dispensable, frustrated that his six years and 37 appearances at Test level have not yielded better results. There is a widely held view, one that Ricky Ponting expressed this week, that he should be sent back to Sheffield Shield cricket for an extended period to bed down his game and earn his way back through performance. It is a view that is maddening for the team internally, given he is easily the best performing Shield batter over the last five years and made a Shield century in his last match for WA in March.
His inability to translate Shield dominance to Test performance is a burden that hangs heavy on his broad shoulders. He is not the type of personality who will use the external criticism as fuel to drive him. The team knows that and is trying to reassure him that he has value.
"I think you meet all kinds of different personalities, even really gentle," Cummins said. "But then when they get in the competition, they turn into different people. And for us, it's always, 'look at when you're at your best'. You see him in some T20 games. He's banging the ball around. He's almost got too many skills. So it's like, just get out there, assert yourself, strip it away, there's no pressure from us. You've got freedom. Go and play. Kind of get out of your own way and just go play."
Getting the best from Green is one project for Australia's Test team over the next 12 months.
Keeping their ageing bowlers on the park is the other.
Cummins, 33, is the youngest of them but one of the most vulnerable alongside the 35-year-old Josh Hazlewood, who was preferred over 37-year-old Scott Boland for the first Test on Thursday despite having only played six of Australia's last 14 because of injury and none in the last 12 months. Cummins has only played one in the same period due to his back injury. But he is putting a positive spin on the time he has had out of the game, hoping that it might prolong his career to the point where he can still be bowling at the level Starc is at 36.
"I hope so. I've missed a few Test matches, but it feels like I've had a proper 12-month block of basically just gym work and running and things that I don't think I ever would have had," Cummins said. "Something like my hamstrings, I've probably managed the last five, six years. I'm sure they'll flare up again, but they feel 100% right now.
"I only have to look at someone like Starcy in the change room to see that he can keep going late into his 30s. So I think this block has set me up pretty well. I feel physically as good as I have in years and years. And then mentally, I haven't really played, so I'm fresh. I absolutely love it. I've been itching to get on the plane up here and getting stuck in."
Australia's 12-month odyssey is about to begin. More conversations will be had over the next 12 months and who is left standing at the end of it all remains a fascinating question.