Looks like the Australian 2012 Olympic team could be receiving a mind-blowing, hard-knock whipping once it gets back home. After six days of competition, the delegation has yet to add another gold to uplift its tarnished honor.

Aussie expectations to win a gold in the pool competition were drowned on Thursday when Magnussen and the men's 4x100m relay team failed to capture the gold in their respective events.

"Talent gets you this far in an Olympics, work ethic gets you across the line," two-time Olympic gold medalist Susie O'Neill said in www.news.com.au. Clearly enough, and yes, those two are distinct and separate matters.

"I've been hearing a little bit from different people that work ethic from Australian swimmers is maybe not the same as it used to be 10 years ago."

"It's one part talent, it's four parts work ethic. Talent gets you this far (but) in those events, it's all hard work. If you want to put the time in, you're going to get there," Ms O'Neill stressed.

Australian head coach Leight Nugent, ironically, conceded to the majority of observations.

"They all go through this type of phase. We have some great kids coming on and the meet's not over yet. I'll talk at the end," he said.

With the very noticeable absence of gold medals on Australia's medal tally, industry observers lambasted and questioned this year's present crop of athletes' work ethic, and immediately called for a review of performance.

What's more notable is that when compared to previous years, Australia's Olympic spirit seems to be decelerating, already losing that drive and power. In 2000, the Australian team came home with eight gold. In Athens in 2004, it dropped to six and in Beijing in 2008, it further dove to five.

With the hard medal tally evidence of the previous years, aiming for a top five finish this year, well, is ambitious.

On Thursday night, Australia deteriorated in 16th place in the London medal table.

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