Captain Alec Stewart yesterday emphasised the passion and commitment required from England if they are to shake off the effects of five successive Ashes series defeats and salvage some pride from the remaining two Tests.

The Surrey wicket-keeper-batsman, whose patriotic rhetoric inspired the summer series victory over South Africa, was as forthright as tour manager Graham Gooch 24 hours earlier when he was asked to dissect the disastrous performance against an Australian XI.

Gooch described England's performance in the demoralising nine wicket defeat in Hobart as "totally abject", coming just four days before the fourth Test - hardly the best preparation before entering the MCG in front of 80,000 people.

It was a performance which left Stewart, normally the most diplomatic of people, fuming as England attempt to salvage some pride from the back-to-back Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.

"If you look at it negatively, if we go 3-0 down then we are really up against it, but we still have to go in with a positive attitude," stressed Stewart.

"The players who are selected have got to make sure they have the right attitude and are on top of their game.

"It won't be a problem lifting spirits - what you have to take into consideration is your own personal performance.

"If your own performance is right and your own application is right then that's going to help the team.

"We have pre-match chats and after-match chats but if people don't perform they are spoken to so we can try and find out why, not in a destructive manner, but we point out positives.

"We are not afraid to point out when someone is not pulling their weight when they should be."

"The riot act wasn't read but a few things were pointed out at both lunch and tea and there will be an open, honest chat before we start practice tomorrow.

"You don't have to be too bright to work out what may be said but at the same time, players will be entitled to have their say, although we will stress that yesterday's performance was unacceptable for an international side.

"Goochie spoke truthfully and honestly yesterday and it's something that has now happened and it's something we didn't want. We will discuss it tomorrow and then we'll be looking forward to the Test.

"We could have had a very boring game and got 650 in the first innings and tried to bowl them out twice but Athers declared and it was generous declaration.

"We could have set them 450 or 500 but with the way we performed with the ball and the approach and attitude we displayed in the field, they would have probably knocked them off anyway - it was a very poor day all round.

"The captain of any game runs the show and Athers thought we had a good chance of bowling them out, but in hindsight the wicket was very flat and he wasn't to know we were going to bowl as we did.

"Because of that it looked a silly declaration."

Australia (from): M Taylor (capt), M Slater, J Langer, M Waugh, S Waugh, D Lehmann, I Healy (wkt), D Fleming, S MacGill, M Nicholson, G McGrath, C Miller.

England (possible, from): M Atherton (Lancashire), M Butcher (Surrey), N Hussain (Essex), M Ramprakash (Middlesex), A Stewart (Surrey, capt & wkt), G Hick (Worcestershire), A Tudor (Surrey), D Headley (Kent), D Gough (Yorkshire), A Mullally (Leicestershire), P Such (Essex), R Croft (Glamorgan), D Cork (Derbyshire).

Umpires: D Harper (Aus) & S Bucknor (WI).

Third umpire: G Morrow (Aus).

Match referee: J Reid (Nzl).