The true test of any Wallabies' progress will come in Wellington in five days' time.
Saturday night's surging comeback against the All Blacks, albeit one that fell short of sending the Bledisloe Cup to a deciding game at the Cake Tin, was the exact response Australia needed.
But Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt and skipper Harry Wilson, knowing Australia were probably fortunate not to have conceded a couple more tries before they crossed twice in 10 minutes to set up a grandstand finish, were right to temper a second-half effort that had the pro-Australian crowd leaving almost as if their team had won.
"We said we need to start better, we can't really give a team like New Zealand that head-start, but we were really proud with how we worked back into the game and put ourselves in a position where we could have won it there at the end and we took the positive from that," Wilson said when asked what he said to his side at fulltime.
"But in saying that, we just lost to the Kiwis, so we've got to be realistic, we need to win those sort of moments."
Sadly for the Wallabies, those "sort of moments" were far too many, particularly in the first half when Australia trailed 21-0 and then eventually 28-14 at the break.
As well as gifting the All Blacks a try to Ardie Savea, and the field position for another when Caleb Clarke intercepted a pass of Wilson's and then finished the play all himself by powering through Tom Wright in the left-hand corner, Australia also failed to turn golden opportunities of their own into scoreboard pressure.
None more so than in the first half when Fraser McReight turned a Taniela Tupou breakdown turnover into a 60-metre gain by thumping a booming kick downfield that trickled into touch for a 50/22 and what should have been a huge momentum swing.
But the Wallabies couldn't win the lineout, not for the first time in Saturday's first half, and the opportunity was lost to the collective groan and disappointment of the home fans.
It was a similar story midway through the second half when Australia kicked to the corner and again couldn't win their lineout; had they started their comeback with 19 minutes to play instead of 15, who knows how much extra time they could have had to chase victory inside the closing minutes.
Instead, the Wallabies had only 25 seconds up their sleeve after Noah Lolesio's conversion of Tom's Wright's try, and their long-range attack was halted at one phase.
Wilson, too, pushed a pass that wound up on the deck and in All Black hands thereafter, the skipper and the supporting Lolesio reacting angrily at each other as another opportunity went begging.
No one can deny how hard Australia is trying, nor how much they care.
But at 4-4 for the season, Schmidt's first in charge, they still lack significant polish and the mistakes that not only gifted the All Blacks easy points but also resulted in Australia spurning them, is exactly where the improvements must come across the Tasman next weekend and throughout the rest of the season.
"I do think that we're building a little, but I think I said on Thursday, no progress is linear, even in that game it undulated," Schmidt said.
"And we've got to get as linear as we can in the improvements we make, because what we can't do is lapse somewhere else if we're looking to improve in one particular area.
"I thought one of the standout areas in Santa Fe was our lineout, and today it was a much tougher day at the office as far as the lineout is concerned, so things do tend to fluctuate."
What did please Schmidt in Sydney was the chances that his side created and the continued development of their attacking game, which stressed the All Blacks from set-piece, on the counter attack, and in general play once Australia really started to apply the pressure inside the final quarter.
With Lolesio straightening up and poking through the line himself, Wright offering himself up as another ball player, and Valetini showing his short passing skill off the back of the lineout and then for Salakaia-Loto's second-half break, which secured the field position for Hunter Paisami's try, Australia's play in Sydney reinforced Schmidt's sentiments from earlier in the year that the attack would come.
"I think so, I think we've made a fair bit of progress," James Slipper, who became Australia's most capped Wallaby with his 140th Test, said when asked if he felt the Wallabies were starting to settle into Schmidt's blueprint.
"What we've seen is lapses, or segments of the games where we just fall off and go away and probably fall back into bad habits, especially when the pressure comes on.
"I think with time, with hard work, we'll become more consistent as a group, because what we do know is when we play the way we want to play we can apply pressure, we can score points.
"It's just simple things, like how connected we are on kick chase; coming from five different Super teams, they slightly do it differently, each team. So it's more about getting that connected and getting better -- in time I think it will be good."
The proof will be in the pudding as they say, or as the case is this Saturday -- in the Cake Tin.