It was bowl fast or not at all: Mitch

Craig McDermott, the former strike bowler turned mentor, identified last Sunday afternoon as the moment when the transition from the former fast bowling era to the present was formalised.

Quick Single: McDermott says the baton has been passed

That was the spell during which Mitchell Starc was clocked delivering the fastest ball that Test cricket has (almost) seen since such technology was made available, and which preceded Mitchell Johnson’s return to the attack whereby he struggled to reach 140km/h.

WATCH: Damien Fleming is joined by retiring superstar Mitch Johnson moments after the speedster finished his final-ever Test, and his coach also stops by to pay respects

And continued to search for his first and only wicket of a New Zealand first innings that hastened his walk into retirement.

But in reality, the baton had been passed four months earlier when Australia began its ultimately failed Ashes campaign under low skies and on a flat pitch at Cardiff with the new ball shared by Starc and Test greenhorn Josh Hazlewood.

It represented just the second time in 16 Tests since his triumphant return to Test cricket in the career-defining Ashes summer of 2013-14 that Johnson had been overlooked to open the bowling for his country.

The other to that point had come in the match that preceded the Cardiff encounter, on a track at Kingston, Jamaica that was as slow as the famously languid customer service in that part of the world and saw spinner Nathan Lyon take the ball ahead of the once-feared fast bowler.

WATCH: The highlights of Johnson's career

And only twice beyond it did he resume the spearhead guise he had donned with such ferocity and efficacy in partnership with Ryan Harris during that Ashes whitewash at home, and even then – at The Oval last August and the Gabba last week – he was clearly down on revs.

Then, when confronted by a pitch at the WACA last weekend that appeared as alien to the ones on which he had enjoyed such success in his halcyon summers as the notion of him operating first change had seemed back then, his will to continue bowling was sapped from him.

The thoughts of retirement that first whispered to him after last March’s World Cup win and became more voluble in the wake of the Ashes spoke clearly and succinctly as he laboured against Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and himself across a fruitless two days in Perth.

Lehmann exclusive: 'Caviar' Johnson changed the game 

"My final decision was more just the hunger and those tough days, I didn’t want to be there," Johnson said tonight after he cited the first innings of the second Test in which he returned the worst figures of his career with 1-157 from 28 overs.

"That’s not very fair on the team and that’s how I play cricket. 

"I always play at 100 per cent."

The sight of Johnson being slapped over mid-wicket for six by NZ tailender Tim Southee on Monday morning, and then turning sharply to head back to the top of his mark with the air of someone who had found the office photocopier jammed but opted to return silently to his desk painted a clear picture.

WATCH: Johnson's 37 Ashes wickets in 2013-14

Which Johnson confirmed in words at his final media conference as an international cricketer this evening.

The man who was identified - when a teenager more interested in tennis - as a rare and prodigious cricket talent by Australia’s most charismatic fast bowler Dennis Lillee, had decided if he couldn’t bowl fast or furiously enough to intimidate a tailender he didn’t want to bowl at all.

Not in the petri dish that is international cricket, that’s for sure.

He had spoken with Lillee at length during the six weeks that separated the end of the Ashes to the preparations for the current Australian summer, and his mentor had suggested Johnson could play on for a further three or four years by dropping his pace and adding variations to his repertoire.

As Lillee himself had done after his career-threatening back injury in the early 1970s, and embraced even more heartily as his career entered its second decade.

As the likes of Glenn McGrath, the West Indies’ Courtney Walsh and even South Africa’s ‘White Lightning’ Allan Donald had done to extend their Test careers towards the age of 40, territory considered a no-go zone for genuinely fast bowlers in generations past.

But Johnson began and wanted to finish as an impact bowler, the sort of showman who could change the course of a match and bring fans through the gate on the back of sheer, eye-watering speed.

WATCH: Johnson's Ashes thunderbolts

He knew he lacked the control to simply run in and land the ball on a pre-determined spot over after over, series after series, mixing cutters with sliders and cleverly disguised slower balls.

More significantly, he lacked the will.

So for the first time in a career during which he turned unfailingly to Lillee for counsel, inspiration and technical expertise at every hairpin turn, he chose to instead back his gut instinct and seek the wisdom of his wife Jessica, who is expecting the couple’s second child in March.

The answer that came back to him was the one he had expected when he posed the question - give it away.

"Not bowling at 150 (km/h) but doing similar to what he (Lillee) did, just bowling at that lower pace but doing something a bit more with the ball," Johnson revealed tonight.

"But in the back of my mind, I was thinking I only want to bowl fast.

"That’s how I’ve bowled my whole career. 

"That was something I remember Brett Lee talking about before his retirement. 

"He said basically he just wanted to bowl fast and if he ever got to the point where he couldn’t bowl fast than he was done as well.

"So I felt like I was on that wave-length as well, but we (he and Lillee) had a pretty good discussion about it and I sent him a message this morning."

Quick Single: Reflections on the Summer of Mitch

Telling him there would not be three of four more years, but rather three sessions if the Test lasted that long.

Johnson then took the field as a Test cricketer for the final time with the batting team needing to survive a minimum 48 overs on a fifth-day pitch, with a target of 321 notionally in their sights.

A year earlier, it would have been unfathomable to contemplate anyone other than Johnson having first crack at the top-order with a view to shaking a couple loose early and putting the fear of Mitch into those watching from the rooms.

But the new ball quite rightly went to Starc, given his record-setting spell of two days previously and the results he’s achieved over the past 12 months.

And at the other end, with the breeze roaring at increasing speed over his left shoulder, came Hazlewood who - while rarely threatening the pace that Johnson was still able to produce at times – was seen as the best chance for important early breakthroughs.

The fact that Johnson again bowled first change vindicated the decision he had announced that morning.

The fact that he added two wickets – the only two wickets of the innings to fall - to lift his Test tally to 313 provided a poetic ending to a career that often moved observers to prose.

WATCH: Johnson signs off with two wickets

And the fact that both of those fell to fast, short-pitched deliveries that posed a threat and stirred memories of the bowler Johnson was, and will now forever remain, brought a final smile to his face.

As well as to the faces of relieved batsmen throughout the cricket world.