Before Thursday night, netball's world champs in Suva next July were a distant spot months away.
By the end of the third test in Christchurch on Monday night, in the manner of an ocean liner moving inexorably into view on the horizon, they may be uncomfortably close, at least in
Silver Fern eyes.
It's fascinating what a defeat can do for perspective. There the New Zealanders were last July, cruising along on the back of a four-game winning streak. All seemed set fair. They seemed to have the Aussies' measure.
Last October, New Zealand belted Australia 61-36, their biggest win in 68 years of squareoffs. Then came the Commonwealth Games gold in Melbourne, then a 12-point win in Brisbane in July.
The Aussies were in transition, their coach as happy as a turkey in December.
Silver Ferns fans loved it - hi-ho Suva where the world crown, won in Jamaica in 2003, will be defended. Now, even if New Zealand win at Waitakere Trusts Stadium tonight, and take the series in Christchurch, questions will linger. Australia have clearly moved up a gear.
Their defence is resilient. Captain Liz Ellis is the Allan Border of her team - not pretty to watch but pretty damn efficient.
They have younger players thrusting forward with that hungry edge and a legacy to maintain.
Sharelle McMahon, quick as a whippet, was, in the crunch moments, the best of the shooters in Wellington. Bar none, and that includes You Know Who.
McMahon? Think ice and veins. When it really mattered in the run home after halftime, the Australian pair of McMahon and Susan Pratley bagged 28 of 30 shots; Irene van Dyk and Maria Tutaia 21 of 26. Numbers count.
Just a thought. If things were wobbling in the final quarter, was any consideration given to Route One netball?
That is, put up netball equivalents of up and unders to van Dyk. Dollars to doughnuts she'd have plucked the lot, like apples off tall branches. It mightn't please the purists but winning is important.
So what's up? Maybe nothing. After all, the Aussies aren't complete pickles, even when they were being beaten. And they've proved to be fast learners. You can't say the old order has been resumed on the strength of two consecutive Australian wins; more a case of things being back on an even keel.
Expecting New Zealand to build up a winning run of the proportions the Australians have done from time to time down the years might have been asking too much. Again, numbers count. It's our national women's sport, but the Lucky Country has the netball playing population.
This series is Aitken's chance to look at what she's got to turn to if her preferred starting seven start leaking. Not that a transtasman contest is the ideal proving ground. But needs must.
How often do we hear coaches insisting with a straight face they hadn't seen a moment of contentiousness. So perhaps they should not be bagged for muttering about the umpiring in the first test. It's widely accepted they came off worse from some ordinary officiating.
The problem is, griping over the whistlers after a loss is never a good look. Jamaican Dalton Hinds and South African Maggie du Plessis might not be the world's best whistlers but they're neutral, along with their third official for this series, Chris Campbell, also from Jamaica. That's why they're here.
It's time this policy stopped. The best should have the best. If that means an Aussie and a Kiwi so be it.
And then there's this: Here's Norma Plummer after the first test: "There's really nothing I could say I didn't like."
Come again? This is not what we're used to hearing from the Australian coach.
And frankly, she's better value firing from the lip. You want another reason to cheer the Silver Ferns tonight? A win should bring back the old Norma.
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