Despite assurances from The Nationals' whip "you'll never know the numbers" the word was soon out it had apparently been much tighter than McCormack and his backers expected.

Apparently the Deputy Prime Minister had been expecting 15 of the 21 votes available. When push came to shove he fell well short of that with one source suggesting there was just one vote in it.

That, as a succession of Liberal and Labor party leaders over the years can testify, isn't good enough. It would almost certainly guarantee another challenge by the Member for New England in the near future.

The real question, given Joyce's track record and the truck loads of grief he has brought down on himself, his family, his party and the Coalition, is "why is a Barnaby redux even being considered?"

McCormack, while he has not set the world on fire and is arguably one of the less memorable political party leaders of the modern era, has served The Nationals well by delivering stability and a chance to regroup after the turmoil of the Joyce era.

He also brought home the bacon by retaining all the party's seats at last year's election.

You would think even the most obtuse and climate denying Nationals parliamentarians would see King Log has served them far better than King Stork.

That was not to be. Senator Matt Canavan resigned from the Cabinet to spearhead the Barnaby resurgence.

While he appears to have paid a heavy price with McCormack refusing to reinstate him the outcome is far from ideal.

The Deputy PM now has two implacable enemies on the backbench, one in each house, who will be working the numbers in preparation for round two.

What neither Joyce, Canavan, nor the individuals who rallied to their cause, gets is that Joyce has lost all credibility with the vast majority of Australians.

He is just too divisive, too recalcitrant, too eccentric, too narcissistic and too at odds with the views of most people on climate change to ever be an acceptable deputy prime minister.

Then there are the allegations of sexual harassment that put him offside with female voters on all sides of politics.

Given the Prime Minister has already begun the year on the back foot the last thing he needs or wants is to have Joyce inflicted on him as his deputy.

Anthony Albanese, who is starting to sound more like an alternative PM by the day, would think all of his Christmasses had come at once.

This has already done further unnecessary damage to the Coalition given that on a day supposedly dedicated to remembering the victims of the bushfires all the Nationals could do was talk about themselves.

The ineptitude that marked this whole affair, which was sparked by the "sports rorts scandal" and Bridget McKenzie's belated resignation, was highlighted by the professionalism with which the Greens transitioned from Richard Di Natale to Adam Bandt.

That is actually a significant shift given Bandt is tipped to refocus the party, which scored 10.4 per cent of the primary vote at the 2019 election compared to just 4.5 per cent for The Nationals, on the environment.

What has already been a bad year to date for the Coalition just got a lot worse. It's not a good look when we need national unity and good leadership more than ever.