While the announcement itself was a mere formality, Brad Haddin’s official Test retirement was meaningful for more than simply marking the end of the wicketkeeper-batsman’s illustrious career.

With five players from the ill-fated Ashes party having now drawn curtains on their time in Baggy Green, another chapter in Australia’s Test match story has come to a close.

Quick Single: Haddin announces Test retirement

It’s been a difficult farewell for the group – Michael Clarke, Ryan Harris, Shane Watson, Chris Rogers and Haddin – with injury forcing one into retirement, two being pushed before they could jump, and the other pair put through the agony of an Ashes hammering.

But in some ways, the fairytale send-off wouldn’t have quite seemed appropriate; this was a group tasked with overseeing Australia through a challenging period in which the buzz words were ‘transition’ and ‘rebuilding’, and their fate was always destined to be more about grind than glamour.

Haddin’s lot underscored that more than anyone’s, as he came into the side as the replacement for the irreplaceable Adam Gilchrist in 2008.

WATCH: Classic Haddin highlights package

To the New South Welshman’s eternal credit, the transition was a relatively seamless one, largely owing to his own penchant for aggressive batting and a commitment to maintaining the highest of standards behind the stumps.

Consequently, Haddin was integral to Australia’s ‘Post Golden Era’ era merging into something considerably more.

With time, the wicketkeeper – and the team – emerged from the shadow cast by the legends that preceded them, and forged an identity all their own.

Haddin was obsessive with his practice // Getty Images

A natural leader of men, by words and deeds, Haddin established himself as the perfect deputy to Clarke.

Quick Single: Smith, Lehmann laud mentor and mate

Stern-faced, gruff and passionate, he fit the mould of Australian wicketkeeper to a tee, helping his captain and new coach Darren Lehmann steer the side out of the winless 2013 tours to India and England and back into the familiar territory of success.

In India, where Haddin played one Test out of four as cover for the injured Matthew Wade (having previously taken leave from the game due to the serious illness of his daughter Mia), his influence was sorely missed.

That he and Mickey Arthur never saw eye to eye was one of the not-so-secret factors behind the disintegration of the South African’s position of power within the national set-up, and when Australia’s selectors recognised the India tour for the debacle it was, Haddin was recalled as vice-captain.

WATCH: A collection of Haddin classics

Predictably, when Lehmann replaced Arthur at the helm ahead of the 2013 Ashes, he and Haddin – two men cut from the same old-school cricketing cloth – struck up an effective leadership combination in conjunction with Clarke.

The restored faith in the gloveman had an immediate effect; amid a humbling 3-0 defeat, Haddin took his wicketkeeping to new levels, snaffling 29 dismissals – the most by any keeper in one series in Test history.

A mentor and example to the new kids on the block – New South Wales counterparts Steve Smith and David Warner chief among them – Haddin set the pace at training even as he advanced into his mid-30s.

And while his influence was significant in between matches, his role as Australia’s saviour with the bat in the 2013-14 Ashes whitewash will forever be viewed as his magnum opus.

Another classic for the scrapbook // Getty Images

A century, five fifties and the most runs by an Aussie keeper (493) in a Test series tell only part of the tale; the real genius of his performances lay in the fact that virtually every knock came with Australia in first-innings circumstances ranging from worrying to dire.

Throw in a collection of spectacular catches and an apparent inability to take a backward step (a trait much loved – and expected – by Australians in their wicketkeepers) and by the beginning of 2014, Haddin had assured his place in Baggy Green folklore.

Ironically, that was also the beginning of the end.

Quick Single: Haddin scripts perfect end to ODI career

As the Post Golden Era era melded into the ‘Clarke Era’ courtesy of the Ashes whitewash and a Test series win in South Africa that briefly took the team to No.1 in the world, the career of the then 36-year-old went into inevitable decline.

One fifty came from his final 12 Tests, and the exceptional benchmark he’d set behind the stumps occasionally faltered.

Haddin’s final telling act in Test cricket was the now infamous Joe Root dropped catch on day one of this year’s Ashes.

Then came the kerfuffle that followed his non-selection two Tests later.

It is a measure of his achievements that neither will do anything to take away from how history judges him as a cricketer.

Ashes whitewash winner, world record holder, World Cup champion.

It’s a fair mantle, upon which his Baggy Green now rests comfortably.