After a week of stinging criticism and leadership rumours, for the Prime Minister's press team it was the best laid plan.
Tony Abbott toured a dairy manufacturer in regional Victoria on Friday to talk up the government's new free trade agreements with China, Japan and Korea.
Tick for farmers. Tick for business. Tick for Australian families.
The visit to Bulla Foods in Colac was a long way from Canberra and even further from Queensland. Tick, tick, tick.
But try as he did to steer the conversation back to good government policy, the PM spent the press conference after the visit fielding questions about his leadership, his office and his controversial decision to knight a Prince.
It caps off a horror week for Mr Abbott, who has come under fire from both within his own party and from faithful Liberal supporters after announcing the Duke of Edinburgh's honour on Australia Day.
Asked whether he planned to step down as leader, and about the popularity of Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull, Mr Abbott wasted no time crediting the success of his cabinet colleagues to himself.
"It's a very strong team, and one of the reasons why so many members of the team are able to perform so well is because they've got a very good captain," he said. "It takes a good captain to help all the players of a team to excel."
He was resolute when asked if he would lead the government to the next election: "Absolutely".
But the PM acknowledged he may be out of touch with the average Australian, saying there was "a bit of dismay" over the announcement earlier this week to honour Prince Philip.
"I'm sure if I went into the pub to talk about it they'd say it was a stuff up," he said. "I'd take that on the chin and then we'd move on and discuss other subjects, and that's exactly what I propose to do today."
But it wasn't to be. The PM was dogged by questions about the harm he's inflicted on Campbell Newman's re-election campaign, his commitment to chief-of-staff Peta Credlin, and reports media mogul Rupert Murdoch ordered him to sack a former press secretary.
And as a week that he'd rather forget drew to an end, the PM repeated his mantra: "I stand by my team/cabinet/parliamentary colleagues/staff."
