Jacob Bethell concedes England are becoming mentally and physically tired as a long Ashes series nears its end, and it showed on day three of the fifth Test.
Even on a tour as tough as this summer's, few days featured so many avoidable blunders for England, who dropped four catches and burnt two reviews trying to dismiss Australia's nightwatchman Michael Neser.
Tuesday began evenly poised at the SCG, with Travis Head spearheading Australia's fightback after England powered to 384 - their highest total of the tour.
The day ended with Australia on 7-518 and 134 runs ahead in pursuit of a 4-1 series win.
Head appeared to have fallen into the same trap that snared him on 170 at the Adelaide Oval as he pulled Brydon Carse's short ball to the boundary on 121 runs.
But Will Jacks spilled the regulation chance with his hands in front of his face.
"We said, 'Hard luck mate, everyone drops them'. I can't see him dwelling on that too much," said England batter Jacob Bethell.
"He's a very confident guy."
Head (163) added 42 more runs before attempting a daring sweep shot and falling LBW to a fellow part-time spinner in Bethell.
The dropped catches didn't end with Jacks.
Carse missed a tough opportunity in the deep, before Zak Crawley failed to hold a diving chance in the slips that could have dismissed Steve Smith on 13.
Instead, Smith went on to raise his bat for a 37th Test ton.
A difficult caught-and-bowled attempt from Jacks in the final over before lunch became England's 17th dropped catch of the series.
Seven of England's XI have played every match of the tour so far, with Bethell saying it was inevitable frontline players would be fatigued nearly seven weeks after the first Test began.
"All the guys that have played the full five Test matches would definitely be tired mentally, physically, all of the above, but that's kind of what comes with a five-match series," Bethell said.
"They'll be tired but those guys have done it before and they know how to deal with it."
The pattern of spilt chances was not lost on the spectators.
Members of the crowd gave one of the series' clumsier fielders, Ben Duckett, a standing ovation when he sent Cameron Green (37) packing after tea.
"I don't think anyone means to drop catches and we've just had to kind of pick those boys up and help them along a bit," Bethell said.
Just as frustratingly, England squandered two of their three reviews for the innings attempting to dismiss Neser.
He had scored only one run when England appeared to mistake the sound of his bat swiping the wicket for an edge, before launching an unsuccessful LBW review.
Ben Stokes remonstrated with the stadium's big screens when it was shown that Carse's yorker, which had clearly struck Neser's toe, was pitching outside off-stump.
