Joe Root, the England captain waits to be interviewed after Australia regained the Ashes after the third Ashes test. Photo / Getty
England fans were left to rue another Ashes tour gone horribly wrong.
After the 5-0 whitewash suffered in 2013-14, all signs point towards another drubbing as the visitors have nothing but pride to play for.
Aussie icon, actor Russell Crowe, took great delight in poking fun at the tourists, prompting a salty response from English media personality and cricket tragic Piers Morgan.
Waiting for all our English readers to send through their joyful best wishes of the season post the Ashes result ... 3-0 ( and counting )
— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) December 18, 2017
Merry ****ing Christmas. https://t.co/Du7zBPVTGe
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 18, 2017
Past players and supporters weighed in on what went wrong for England across the opening three Tests of the summer.
Image 1 of 12: Steve Smith of Australia and his fiance Danielle Willis celebrate in the changerooms after Australia regained the Ashes. Photo / Getty
Former England captain Michael Vaughan said he hopes all-rounder Ben Stokes is hurting more than the players who took the field at the WACA because he let them down when he became involved in a violent incident on a night out in Bristol in September.
Stokes was not included in the touring party because he was the subject of a police investigation, robbing England of its X-factor.
Read more: Australia reclaim Ashes with emphatic win over England
"I hope that Ben Stokes is watching and I hope he's hurting more than the team in the dressing room because as soon as Ben Stokes did what he did it was very clear to me he was going to struggle to be in Australia," Vaughan told BT Sport.
"I said it straight away that I didn't think England would have any chance of competing out here without Ben Stokes."
Joe Root said after play he hopes veterans Alastair Cook, Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson are all still playing 12 months from now despite Cook and Broad in particular having next to no impact so far.
Root wasn't keen on the idea of wholesale changes for the sake of them, saying the team will be trying to bounce back in the final two Tests of the series.
But England great Kevin Pietersen said his former side needs to use the result as a catalyst to rebuild.
As we all bid a fond farewell to the WACA, Root needs to bid a fond farewell to one of his new ball bowlers! MCG & SCG present him an opportunity to start his young reign as captain again! #Ashes pic.twitter.com/tlDBcYU94Q
— Kevin Pietersenš¦ (@KP24) December 18, 2017
Vaughan agreed, saying Root needs to decide what he stands for and build a team to replicate the culture he wants embedded within England cricket. The Ashes-winning captain said it's time to make hard calls, such as dropping Broad for the upcoming tour of New Zealand.
"Stuart has not bowled well all year," Vaughan wrote in an article for The Telegraph. "Taking 25 wickets at nearly 40 is not good enough for Broad, particularly given some of the wickets he has bowled on.
"He has not bowled in Australia to the standard he would have liked so maybe the call is to leave him out for a while.
"Send him back to county cricket and say, 'Come on do you really, really want it?' Does he want to be touring, putting in all the hard work, training and going to team meetings and living under a curfew? Do other senior guys really want that? If they do great, but the only way to find out is to challenge them."
Well played Australia ... Too good in all facets of the game ... #Ashes
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) December 18, 2017
Very well played Australia .. Big players too powerful for England
— David 'Bumble' Lloyd (@BumbleCricket) December 18, 2017
I see it differently ... Australia just too good .. our system of cricket does not consistently produce players suited to playing outside of England https://t.co/ap3dqrf78Y
— David 'Bumble' Lloyd (@BumbleCricket) December 18, 2017
Well played Australia! Not much else to say there š¢š #Ashes
— Ian Bell (@Ian_Bell) December 18, 2017
Congrats to Australia on reclaiming the Ashes. Some incredible individual performances backed up by some serious pace. We are gutted but our spirit will stay strong and fight another day, even harder than before #ashes #MCG #SCG
— Paul Collingwood (@Colly622) December 18, 2017