JOIN USPlayed three, lost three and bottom of Group B is not a World Cup record any country would be proud of but when you are coming from the dark place Australia were in eight months ago, success is a relative term.
The 3-0 defeat by Spain on Monday which ensured that 2014 would be the worst of their four World Cup campaigns was the most disappointing performance of their three in Brazil.
Coach Ange Postecoglou will not be alone, however, in thinking that, taking their campaign as a whole, his young and inexperienced squad had shown enough positives for considerable optimism for the future.
"I think we've shown up in this tournament with the right intent," he told reporters in Curitiba. "When we have been positive and backed ourselves and had belief, we've pushed some of the best countries in the world. But we're not a top 15 nation right now and that's what we've got to try and be.”