Australia coach Andrew McDonald was getting slightly frustrated on a Zoom call with a group of reporters two days after the win at the Gabba.
He was getting repeated questions about whether spin was becoming redundant in Australia, after Nathan Lyon was left out of the pink-ball Test and had only bowled two overs in Perth.
"I'll make this a headline, we still do value spin," McDonald said.
"We want the spinner down one end and rotating the three quicks. That's when we feel like we're at our best."
Just eight days later in Adelaide, on the hottest day of the summer so far, and the flattest and slowest batting pitch Australia has played on at home in five years, those words proved prophetic.
Australia got its first-choice bowling cartel back together, minus only Josh Hazlewood, and England's much-vaunted Bazball batters melted in the 40-degree heat under the sustained pressure of Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland and Cameron Green.
"That's a good old-fashioned Test cricket day. That was extremely hot out there," Lyon said after play.
"I think it's a pretty good wicket. It's probably on the slower side, if I'm being honest. But still, day two, pretty decent time to bat, but the class of our bowlers, being consistent, I've got to give them credit, especially Pat coming back, Starcy being Starcy, Scott and Cam chiming in as well. Makes it pretty handy."
That quartet, along with Green, have had some great days in recent times, blowing batting units away and winning a WTC final together. But the shift they produced to put Australia on the brink of claiming the Ashes 3-0 was as good as any they have put together.
Cummins had not bowled a ball in a match since July due to his back injury. Lyon had bowled only 12 in a Test in that time. Starc has carried a large load through the first two Tests of the series. Boland was playing three Tests in a row for the first time since his debut series four years ago, and Green is only three Tests back from spine surgery, and had not bowled particularly well in the series to-date.
When they stepped out to bowl as the temperature climbed to its peak, Australia's 371 looked significantly under-par given the wastefulness of some of the dismissals. Those nerves would only have been compounded when Starc, Lyon and Boland batted with relative ease against England's second new ball in the first 40 minutes.
But they did not miss. It was a masterclass in sustained pressure. Even some thumping drives from Ben Duckett on the up did not deter them.
Where Australia had looked frantic in 2023, when this cartel got thrashed off their lengths early, they doubled down in the channel.
No panic, no field spread. Cummins put his Superman cape on and went to work. As Starc thundered in from the Cathedral End with a 20-knot wind at his back blowing like a hair dryer off the Simpson Desert, Cummins pushed up into it and delivered the ball of the match to start the rot. Angled in towards off, on a seven-metre length, Zak Crawley had to play a forward defence. The ball straightened a fraction to scratch the edge. Crawley has played four awful shots in this series to be dismissed but he did nothing wrong here.
"I like bowling a lot of overs before a Test series," Lyon said. "But Pat's that world-class that, you could see today, he could have an extensive break off, train his backside off, but then come and be extremely effective and be the world-class bowler that he is."
Cummins immediately pulled himself from the attack and gave Lyon the ball at his end to put McDonald's plan in motion.
Lyon had been stuck on 562 Test wickets for five months, one shy of Glenn McGrath on Australia's all-time list. On Monday, when Lyon was added to Adelaide Oval's Avenue of Honour, he said it would be a fairytale to pass McGrath at the ground where he started his professional career.
It took him one over. Ollie Pope gifted him wicket 563. Duckett was undone by a beauty that drifted in, pitched and spun past the edge to hit the top of off for 564.
"I grew up idolizing Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath," Lyon said.
"It's pretty humbling to be honest with you, and it's something that I'll look back on at the end of my career, or even tonight and sit back and try and have a moment, because it is an extremely special moment for myself, but I haven't been able to do that without the guys at the other end."
It was the last wicket Lyon took for the day. But he locked in as the quicks rotated at the other end. Boland could have easily had Joe Root before lunch only to be denied when the third umpire deemed an inside-edge hadn't carried to Alex Carey. Cummins took care of him soon afterwards, scratching his outside-edge to claim him for a 12th time in Tests.
Harry Brook and Ben Stokes dug in but Brook never broke free. One skip down to slap Boland over cover was his only real risk-taking effort to hit Australia's quicks off their lengths.
Starc defied the heat and hit Stokes in the head with a 145kph thunderbolt. Green came on to give the frontline quicks a breather and nicked off Brook with a 138kph good-length delivery that nipped 8cm off the seam.
Even during some flat periods when the ball went soft and some short-ball efforts were required, it wasn't a mindless, silly period of stuff banged halfway down for an eternity. It was a short burst from Cummins to remove Jamie Smith before Boland locked back in on the top of off to claim Will Jacks and Brydon Carse in quick succession, with Carey up to the stumps for both.
Lyon was asked what it said about Australia that they could be 2-0 up in the series and then bring back himself and Cummins to pile on the pain, despite neither having had much bowling.
"I think you can look at the depth of Australian cricket and be really proud about where things are at," Lyon said. "Brendan Doggett, Michael Neser have been incredible within the series. But then obviously Scott is Scott and Starcy is Starcy. I think we can take a lot of credit in our preparation and the guys when they've had their opportunity, they've taken it."
Lyon was quick to note the job wasn't done. Stokes and Jofra Archer provided stubborn resistance in the last hour to prove the pitch was still good for batting with 12 overs to bowl before a second new ball.
"Got nothing but respect for Ben, we know what he can do," Lyon said. "So we rest up, recover and we go again in the morning."
Relentless, unerring, unsatiated. Australia's bowling at its best.