If the sweeping changes weren't necessary after losing the Ashes last year, nor after slipping to fifth on the ICC Test rankings following defeat to India in October, then surely now Australia's selectors must draw a line in the sand and overhaul their plans and the players chosen to deliver them.
The Ashes are all but gone - there is no evidence to suggest Australian bowlers can take 20 wickets once, let alone twice - now the minimum required to regain the urn from a clinical England side. They cannot sink lower.
Fifteen months of painstaking preparation and strategising has resulted in this, a humiliating defeat by an innings and 71 runs to trail 1-0 after two games. ''They've out-batted us, out-bowled us, and out-fielded us this entire game,'' Ricky Ponting said.
But what's to stop it happening again in Perth? The same problems that were supposed to have been rectified for this series have cost Australia yet again; a flaky middle order that crumbles under pressure, a pace attack that cannot bowl to plans and a spinner who can't take wickets.
''There's no doubting that they're playing well, but it was only a week ago that we were saying the teams look very evenly matched and that Australia were favourites.
''I don't think they've improved that much in that period of time and I don't think we've gone that far backwards in that period of time either. I know the scoreboards probably look that way, but the skills in our team are definitely there. I don't think anything that has happened so far, from what England have done, has really surprised us. We knew they'd be well prepared, we knew they'd play well.
''But how we react to the pressure that's being put on us at the moment has been the difference, we have to make sure the players keep believing that with their preparation and what they're doing out in the middle is right. Until you get that, you'll always be second-guessing yourself, and if you second-guess yourself in this game, it's all over for you.''
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