The build-up to the return to South Africa has been dominated by talk of the ball-tampering scandal of eight years ago, which prompted mass upheaval and changed the face of Australian cricket.
There are more Australian media on this South Africa tour than for the 2023 Ashes, while Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg is also on the ground with the team.
But Cameron Bancroft's use of sandpaper on a ball at Newlands in March 2018 was only the headline moment of a tour marred by multiple confrontations between the two teams and the crowd.
Friday's first Test at Durban marks a return to the scene of the stairwell clash between David Warner and Quinton de Kock, which Faf Du Plessis broke up while wearing a towel.
Kagiso Rabada was also initially banned, and then let off with a fine, for making physical contact with Steve Smith after claiming his wicket at the second Test in Port Elizabeth.
Warner also clashed with a spectator in Cape Town in the days before 'sandpapergate', while Cricket South Africa were forced to apologise after officials posed with fans taunting the opener's family life.
"We've been in consistent dialogue over a number of months leading to this tour," Greenberg said.
"Our counterparts at Cricket South Africa have been fantastic to deal with. They've given our team every level of surety that they well looked after.
"That's been evidenced by us being here for about a month or so playing white-ball cricket, and we've been very well looked after."
Greenberg pointed to warm relations between the two sides as proof the icy tensions had thawed.
"We're actually having breakfast together," Greenberg said.
"I don't think there's that heightened emotion between the teams."
Australia are also a side far removed from March 2018, with Pat Cummins leading a more relaxed group after the raft of investigations and reviews.
"It's a very different cultural environment, very different cricket team than what came here eight years ago," Greenberg said.
"JL (Justin Langer) and Tim Paine deserve enormous credit for the rebuilding of this team ... and Pat and Andrew (McDonald) deserve the same level of praise."
Players do expect some level of heckling from the crowd over the ball-tampering affair, but have been insistent in the lead up to this tour that is nothing new.
England's crowds regularly called Australians cheats during the 2019 and 2023 Ashes, while there have been sandpaper taunts on previous white-ball tours of South Africa.
"There'll be people that will probably dive into that area, and they have worldwide as well," coach McDonald said.
"But I'm incredibly proud of what this team's been able to achieve in performance, but also the way that they've gone about it."
"So there won't be too much I don't think, but I could be surprised."
