If you get on a roll - good or bad - it's hard to get out of it, but it's not impossible.

As a bowler it's a strange feeling when you start running through a team. You get that one wicket under your belt and suddenly you start running in feeling loose, feeling relaxed and thinking about what you want to bowl rather than focusing on trying to force that wicket.

When you're playing in a good team where you're confident in yourself and your team-mates, when you've done the business before, it makes it so much easier.

The Australian team that I was lucky enough to play in had a certain aura and sometimes you had teams beaten before you even walked on the field.

I used to come out and say I was targeting certain players in the opposition team, particularly players I had had success against in the past: Gary Kirsten, Brian Lara and Michael Atherton, for example. It is a mental part of the game.

The more you get a batsman out the more it becomes psychological. A batsman starts thinking about it and making something of it in his head.

If you have knocked over a batsman once - fine, it happens. Twice, OK. But more than that in the space of a few Tests then there is definitely something to work with.

But if you have got a batsman out three or four times in the same series then you are in business - all of a sudden you have got yourself a bit of a bunny.

Consistency in selection is great but it's a whole lot easier if you've got players who warrant that consistency through their performances.

When you've got a team who are making a concerted effort to make a batsman feel uncomfortable it can look pretty ordinary.

The Australian approach to playing cricket in general is quite an aggressive one.

When things aren't going well it can feel like the world is against you and there's nowhere to turn.

Test cricket tests you physically and skill-wise, but also mentally. And you have to be solid on all three to do well.

My experience with Australia in the 1997 Ashes series taught me that fighting back is a combination of technique and mindset.

The difference between first-class cricket and international cricket isn't skill, it's attitude and the way you go about things.

If you've got one bowler - particularly a fast bowler - who is really aggressive, all over the opposition, he brings the rest of the team along with him.

As a fast bowler if you're not going to bowl well on a Perth wicket you're going to struggle in Australia.

The one thing you can't do is get carried away with that pace and bounce. There's a temptation to charge in and just slam the ball into the pitch and you can end up bowling too short. You still have to bowl the right length so that you threaten to take wickets.

Is there a secret to bowling at the Waca? In a way the secret is that there is no secret. Like any ground in the world, it's all about feel.

Have a little protection if that helps your bowler - Brett Lee always wanted a cover and a midwicket because they helped him bowl his natural length and made him more effective as a result.

If they don't execute well enough then there's nothing much a coach can do. But if they do execute those plans correctly and they don't work, then you need to be able to adapt and come up with something different.

You can come up with all the gameplans that you want but the guys in the middle have to execute those plans. If Jimmy Anderson or Stuart Broad serves up a leg-stump half-volley, you can't turn round and blame Andy Flower.

A coach these days is more of a manager than a coach. At this level, you shouldn't really need a coach. You need someone to organise, to come up with gameplans and tactics, rather than someone who is going to do much actual coaching.

It's incredible what the Sydney Test has become - it's now iconically the pink Sydney Test. It's the sixth year that the McGrath Foundation has been involved and the support from everyone in cricket - right across the board, supporters, teams, you name it - has been absolutely incredible.