Ashes 2010: Australia press reaction to day three at the MCG

"The miserable summer of Australia's most senior players continued today," resignedly reported The Australian of the latest travails of Ricky Ponting's batsmen against the England attack. Still, the paper did valiantly grasp for some positives. "Australia's Ashes hopes are forlorn but at least the hopeless fight will continue into a fourth day at the MCG," they attempted, before littering their report with words like "despairing", "limped" and "disconsolate". It was a theme mirrored in The Age (" Ashes defeat in sight after Australia collapses ," they fretted) and The West Australian (" The end is nigh ") but it's perhaps the verdict of Sydney's Daily Telegraph that is the most damning: " Fish rots from the head " screams the front page of their online sports pages as they get stuck into the "pitiful" and "brittle" Australian top order batsmen. They did, at least, find room to cut Phil Hughes some slack after he was run out by his partner Shane Watson – before putting the boot into the young opener's technique : "Critics argue Hughes' unorthodox technique simply hasn't stood up to a torrid examination from England's quality pace battery, just as it has short-circuited in Sheffield Shield ranks with 118 runs at 16.8 for New South Wales this season." But by far the most criticism was reserved for Ponting himself. Allan Border seems to thinks the captain's pride is the problem and suggested he should drop down the order . "I personally think at 36 he has done the hard yards so I think someone else should stick the hand up for that one," said the former Australian captain, who also gradually moved from three to six as his career progressed. "Most of the other good players around the globe that are reaching that sort of age – look at Tendulkar he bats four or five. I just reckon he would be better served down the list." Still, it begs the question of who would replace him. The Herald Sun, though, has another solution . "Ricky Ponting has opened the door for his sacking as Test captain. The real intentions of Australia's selectors are about to be revealed. If they were already looking for a reason to throw the captaincy to someone else, Ponting's MCG meltdown has given them one. It's easy for the selectors to punt him now. They can just come out and say, 'He's clearly cracked under the strain and become unable to perform his duties in a coherent fashion.'" They go on to point out that there is already an Australian precedent for changing horses in mid-stream: "In 1971, Bill Lawry was given the old heave-ho and Ian Chappell was installed." But finally conclude that : "Australia's bid to reclaim the urn died at the MCG ." So what should the Australians do? Shane Warne's advice is that they should not panic , as he tells the selectors not to make wholesale changes before the final Sydney Test. "It would be easy to make wholesale changes and look to the future, but you really have to sit down, study it and ask, 'Who do we identify in first-class cricket who could have a long career for Australia?'. Do we really want to chop and change radically? We still want to win the Test match and hopefully level the series – there's no real point in making wholesale changes. Though we do need to bring in a spinner for Sydney - that stands out like a beacon." Andrew Webster wants to know where Australia go too , pointing out that, though Michael Clarke is the vice captain, there are murmurings that he should not be the man to replace Ponting. "We can cop the hiding. We can swallow that England is better. We can even stomach the Barmy bloody Army. But what we want to know now is how Australian cricket, the national sport, will be recovered and rebuilt ... You sense it is only a matter of time before Cricket Australia impose the grim task of rebuilding upon the vice-captain. "Rightly or wrongly, they have travelled too far down the path of MJ Clarke to turn back. Or maybe not. If you believe the speculation whirring behind the scenes, there are emerging doubts within the inner-sanctum." But amid all the criticism, there was one thing that was harder to find: any praise for the England team and their bowlers. Even Andrew Strauss's captaincy was, apparently, learned at Justin Langer's knee . Perhaps the compliments will come later.