It will be a long trip home for the New South Wales players after they fell to an outright Sheffield Shield loss against Tasmania in Hobart on Thursday.
Having lost Saturday's Ryobi Cup match ahead of the cut-throat contest against the defending Shield champions, the Blues also have concerns over the health of middle-order veteran Simon Katich who was struck a savage blow to the head while batting on Day 1 and was unable to take any further part in the game due to ongoing concussion.
Speaking after the loss, Blues coach Anthony Stuart said he believed the loss of Katich had been a pivotal moment early in the match, but that a second innings fadeout had been even more damaging as his side chased outright points to keep their Shield season alive.
"It would have been nice to win the toss but I thought we played well to get to 340," Stuart said of the first innings performance. "To lose Simon (Katich) when we did we were 160 for two and going at nearly four an over and then Steve (Smith) got out and we had two new batters in and it changed the momentum a little bit."
Two dropped catches after Steve O'Keefe's declaration late on Day 1 then allowed the Tigers to start their batting innings strongly and George Bailey chimed in with a classy century on Day 3 to wrest control of the contest for Tasmania.
From there the Blues struggled to get back into the game and were eventually outmuscled by the surging Tigers.
"We knew the wicket was going to get harder to bat on, a little up and down... again we just weren't able to string partnerships together and twice we lost two wickets on the same score and you're always pushing up hill when you're not stringing partnerships together," Stuart said.
Katich was unable to bat as the Blues fell to 9-150 on the final day and Stuart said the former Test opener was still struggling to overcome the ill-effects of a top-edged pull shot that cannoned into his forehead on the first day.
"He's still pretty groggy. Mornings seem to be his worst time, a bit drowsy waking up. He won't be cleared to play until the doc says he's fine and whenever that is, that's up to the doc."
"We go to Perth on Wednesday. He must be in some doubt."
While his inexperienced attack had failed to contain the Tigers in either innings, Stuart said there were lessons to be learned from the Hobart loss and hoped the young Blues would take plenty into their remaining fixtures.
"I'm hoping they'll learn from this today and they're better for it next opportunity they get. We've got three four-dayers to play and a one-dayer to play and it's important we turn up with the right attitude with the ball and when we're batting putting partnerships together and all the basic stuff we're just not doing well enough at the moment and it's important we get that right as soon as possible."