This is their moment ... this is their day to savour Like sons of famous fathers, this generation of Australian cricketers has had to live in the shadow of those who went before. It hasn't been easy. Expectations that had firmed up over the 15-year golden age left little forgiveness when failure came, as it had to. When Australia lost three Ashes series, two away and one at home, the cricketers involved paid a high price for not carrying the standards of their glittering forebears. They even wore the stigma of comeuppance, as if the pomp and excess of the earlier generation left a debt that this new group had to pay. This is the context for Michael Clarke's declaration that this Ashes win belongs to the present: specifically, to the 11 representatives who have played in the Test matches in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, and to their support staff. He did not want to talk about a new dynasty. He did not want to talk about the possibility of 5-0. There has to be a time to sit down and absorb and enjoy the here and now, and this is it. Seldom can it be confidently stated that one moment is a high point in a sportsman's career, but for a lot of this Australian team, nothing will match it because there is so little time left. Chris Rogers and Brad Haddin are 36. Ryan Harris is 34. Shane Watson, George Bailey, Mitchell Johnson and Clarke all have, as cricketers, a lot more yesterdays than tomorrows. They were brought to a pitch of perfection for this summer, for the three Test matches just played. The overwhelming margin of their victories against a team that tormented them just a few months ago is one of those examples of why it's called cricket, wonderful cricket. Wonderful in both senses: excellent and marvellous, for fans, but also arousing astonishment for its uniqueness. Gone: George Bailey catches James Anderson. All of the players, in some way, embody this strange ripening. Harris, the thoroughbred who took a career to rid himself of injuries. Haddin, who had to take the locker left by Adam Gilchrist and Ian Healy, and who has had a year that would do honour to either of them. Rogers, the mature-age student whose catch of Tim Bresnan at mid-on on Tuesday had the spring of a curly-haired child. Peter Siddle, the David who keeps on bringing down his personal Goliath in Kevin Pietersen. Clarke, whose batting and leadership carried this team until, as with Allan Border in 1989, his team carried themselves. The dimensions of the win reverberate most strongly, however, in the two bowlers who ended the nervousness at the WACA. Nathan Lyon knows more than anyone what it's like to inherit an overburdened family estate. As Australia's spin bowler, Lyon doesn't have to look far to find the shadow of you-know-who. Lyon has also stepped into the death seat given to a full team of spinners since Shane Warne's retirement in 2006-07, not coincidentally the last time Australia defeated England. On Tuesday, Lyon was not given the ball until just before lunch, whereupon Ben Stokes spanked him out of the ground. With the batsmen having to readjust, Clarke gave Lyon the first over back - an unusual step, as he had led almost every session of the series with his pace trumps. Two overs in, Stokes let go a Lyon skidder, and it brushed his pad flap. It was only centimetres from being lbw. Next ball, Stokes tried to deal with a similar ball by sweeping. He under-edged and was taken by Haddin, the evergreen in baggy green. Lyon has always had respectable Test bowling figures, but they were asterisked by bunnies who got out trying to smash him. In this series, his previous wickets had been Pietersen, Alastair Cook, Joe Root (both innings in Adelaide), Matt Prior (both innings in Brisbane), Cook again, and Ian Bell. Lyon has turned into exactly what his team needs, a containing bowler who takes crucial strategic wickets. An impact player. Give him a moustache, and call him Merv Hughes. His last victim yesterday, and his cheapest, was Graeme Swann, which says as much as anything about the ticking of the clock. Lyon scampered around in front of the Barmy Army, showing them three fingers. Whatever long-term future there is for the Australian team, Lyon is part of it, along with the other under-30s, David Warner, Siddle and man-of-the-match Steven Smith. And then there was the boy with the dragon tattoo. So much for England's self-styled, almost embarrassingly hubristic psychological profiles as "assassins" and whatever else. Speaking of embarrassing, how about those idiots who said Johnson was too risky to select? I was ... oh, come on, you gotta help me out, Fonz ... Wrrrrr ... wrrrrr ... Johnson stepped into the Australian team six years ago as Dennis Lillee's anointed bowler-of-a-generation, and within 18 months was international cricketer of the year. In Johnson resided hopes that Australian cricket could defy gravity and keep the golden ball in the air. In Johnson, from mid-2009, lay the subsequent wreckage of those hopes. And here he is, the big difference between the teams, the only addition to the Australian side that lost 3-0 in England. In the peaks of Australian performance since the twilight of the idols - the series win in South Africa in 2009, the scattered victories in Perth, this Ashes contest - Johnson has been a common denominator. Nuff said. Johnson's speed was down in Perth, from 150km/h to 147 or so. He'll enjoy a rest. But so devastating had he been in the first two Tests, England were almost double-teaming him by working on keeping him out, which then rendered them vulnerable to Lyon, Siddle, Watson and Harris. But when he was needed, Johnson stepped up. No demolition jobs as in the first two Test matches, but the first and biggest breakthrough on Tuesday, dismissing Prior, and then Jimmy Anderson protecting his body from the ball, popping the catch so that Australians could begin popping the corks.