While much has been made of the Eden-Monaro byelection being a litmus test for Scott Morrison's response to the bushfires and now coronavirus, or a measure of Anthony Albanese's leadership, hard questions also should be asked about the performance of the Nationals party.
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The past two months has been an unedifying spectacle for the junior Coalition partner, culminating in an underwhelming result on Saturday.
When unveiling former Queanbeyan deputy mayor Trevor Hicks as the party's candidate in early June, NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro spun their entrance into the fray as providing voters in Eden-Monaro an option beyond the Liberal and Labor parties.
"I'll make this clear. There is no such party as the Coalition. We're a standalone party. We're not the lapdog, we're not the junior partner. We're the party that delivers for the bush," he proclaimed.
It was pitch aimed squarely at disaffected Nationals voters drifting towards the upstart Shooters and Fishers party.
But whatever the Nationals were offering, voters were not buying.
While Hicks commanded a respectable share of the vote around the Queanbeyan area, the party lost ground in much of the electorate.
As of 5pm on Sunday, Shooters' candidate Matthew Stadtmiller - who is not even from the electorate - managed a 5.42 per cent swing.
Labor's win was reliant on preference flows, including from the Shooters.
Meanwhile tales of the Nationals' subterfuge, and outright sabotage, have dominated the headlines during the byelection.
First Barilaro took himself out of contention for the seat after much speculation he would try to jump from state to federal parliament, saying he wanted to concentrate on helping the region recover from the bushfires and coronavirus pandemic.
It later emerged through leaked messages Barilaro blamed federal Nationals leader Michael McCormack for stifling his bid by failing to come out and enthusiastically endorse the NSW MP for the seat.
"You will never be acknowledged by me as our leader. You aren't. You never will be," Barilaro reportedly said.
The spray made for an uncomfortable showing when McCormack and Barilaro were forced to buck up and back Hicks to run for the seat.
It begs the question whether Saturday's poll will reignite leadership tensions and shatter their tenuous truce.
Barilaro also torpedoed NSW Liberal MP Andrew Constance's much-touted tilt after a foul-mouthed tirade about him was reported in a Sydney newspaper.
Reports emerged this week Barilaro's allies were telling Nationals voters to preference Labor above the Liberals - claims he denied.
However Barilaro admitted preferencing Labor's Mike Kelly ahead of the Liberals at the last election.
On a Sky News panel on Saturday night, Barilaro claimed he could have won the seat if he'd run.
"I know on the ground I had wide support. I could have had a go at it," he said.
There will be those in the Nationals cheering for a Liberals' loss because it would clear the way for Barilaro to run during the next general election in 2021 or 2022.
However it's unlikely the Liberals - and many other Nationals - will be cheering along with them.