With the election now done and dusted and the battles for spots in the ministry and the shadow ministry resolved, the Canberra Liberals must now feel at the start of a long road ahead. While learning the lessons of defeat can be hard, the quickest and most effective way to find their way back to contention is to get on with the main job of any opposition: holding the government to account.
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This doesn't mean waging Tony Abbott-style guerrilla warfare against any and all legislative measures proposed by the parties in power.
But it doesn't involve presenting such a small target strategy that the electorate concludes you are an ideas-free zone, bereft of any policies or beliefs of your own, either.
This is why new Opposition Leader Alistair Coe's stated willingness to move on from outright opposition to light rail is refreshingly welcome. His attitude of accepting that light rail will proceed, but pledging to monitor it closely and watch the spending, is a sound strategy.
While there are many ACT Liberal diehards who will never accept the billion-dollar transport plan has a place in Canberra's future, the reality is voters have now had two opportunities to vote it down.
Although the phrase "light rail mandate" may be problematic, the election was fought on a range of issues, which extended far beyond transport. It can't be denied Canberrans knew full well an ALP-Greens government would mean full steam ahead for the tram.
Mr Coe's Wednesday pronouncement he accepted the first stage of light rail was going to happen and the challenge for the Liberals is to make sure it is properly integrated into the city's infrastructure, takes on additional significance given he will be retaining the transport portfolio in the shadow ministry.
That particular challenge, which can be comfortably expected to be a major battleground in the chamber during the next four years, will fall squarely on his shoulders.
If he plays a spoiling game the electorate will, quite rightly, punish his party again when next it goes to the polls. As the architect of the Liberals' policy of opposing the tram, he will have to work hard to convince voters he has heard their will and moved on.
If, on the other hand, the opposition is perceived as giving too much ground on this issue, he will probably lose support within his own party and possibly in the community.
Having shown a strong grasp of transport issues in his work on developing the Liberals' bus-based alternative to light rail in the period leading up to this year's poll, Mr Coe, who is blessed with relative youth and a degree of perceptible enthusiasm, should be well placed to offer constructive criticism as the tram rollout begins.
While this will not, of itself, pave the way for a future Liberal government given the well-documented reluctance of ACT voters to put conservatives into power, a more positive approach would remove at least one impediment to victory.
Areas on which the government does appear to be vulnerable, and which Deputy Opposition Leader Nicole Lawder has responsibility for, include the speed at which land is being released and developed and the effect this is having on housing affordability. There are pressure points to probe, it's now up to the opposition to exploit them.
