Tomorrow represents a far better chance for the home quartet to author an Adelaide victory compared to the inaugural edition a year ago, when Talor Gooch at the individual title sewn up with a day to go. The Ripper four are confident they have what it takes to spark a final-day surge.

“We were all feeling really comfortable with where our game’s at,” Smith said. “I said at the start of the week [that] I think we’ve done a better job with managing our time and a better preparation on the golf course, and it’s kind of showing.

“Obviously Herby (Lucas Herbert) didn’t have his best stuff yesterday, but showed up today with a seven-under, which was pretty nice for us in the team standings.

“Four scores counting tomorrow is a different game, and we’ve all got to show up and probably with our best stuff to win.”

Jones, who has had fewer chances to taste individual glory in his time on LIV Golf, knows what he needs to do in the final round.

“I’m going to have to play the back nine like I’ve played it the past two days, and I’m going to have to play really well on the front nine,” he said. “‘Steeley’ is not going to come back. I played with him today, and he played brilliantly. It was a very easy eight-under. I can’t see him going backwards again. We’re going to have to hit a lot of good shots and give ourselves a lot of good putts.”

In a piece of good fortune for which he was apologetic, Smith received a good bounce back into the fairway on the 17th hole when his wayward drive struck a female spectator in the back. He converted the good break into a timely birdie.

“It was a good bounce, for sure,” he said. “I felt really bad for the lady down there. I hit her in the back.

“It probably wasn’t going to be in the trees but it was going to be in the rough and a different lie, so it could have been a different outcome. But [I] made her proud and made a birdie there, and she helped me out. Hopefully that eased the pain a little bit for her.”

Cam Smith hugs spectator Annette Blake after his wayward tee shot on the 17th hole hit the spectator on the back and bounced back onto the fairway. [Photo: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images]

With twin goals in view, the Ripper GC quartet are carrying out a plan hatched since they left Adelaide last April.

“We’ve spoken about [it] literally the past year, and… for us to be in the position that we’re in after Saturday is a pretty cool spot,” Smith said.

“We had a really good chance in Hong Kong to get a team win. Didn’t quite pan out the way we wanted there. But I’d like to think we’ve all been playing some really solid golf, particularly these past two or three events, and yeah, [it] just all kind of needs to blend together on the last day. With those four scores counting, it can be quite tough.

“I feel like if you’re within probably four or five shots that just goes back to zero almost. It can happen in one hole. We’ve seen it before. We’ve seen the Crushers come back from 12 or 13 back, I think it was in Saudi. Yeah, you can’t sleep on a one or two-shot lead in the team event.”

The Ripper GC boys are now soaking in the post-LIV, on-site concert by Australian DJ Fisher. After that they’ll sleep – not on the lead, but on an opportunity to leave the first victorious mark by an Aussie on a LIV Golf tournament in this country.