Although it's disappointing that the Poms have got the Ashes back, I'm looking at the bigger picture. This is a rebuilding stage for Australia and you do have to start somewhere.

I'm sick of hearing the media comparing our current team to the likes of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. It's a little unfair because it's not the same bunch of players.

When you look at the overall picture, nearly every one of our players did something really good throughout the series, but they just couldn't put it all together.

Looking back over the five Tests, even though we lost, we really should have won. As the selectors pointed out, there were a couple of big moments we missed out on - if we'd have grabbed those, we would've won.

I'm also tired of hearing comments about what the Australian selectors should have done, but I've just started to realise this is the 'big time' and everyone does get to have their say.

Naturally, Peter was disappointed with the loss, but as he said, you just come back bigger and better next time around - try that little bit harder and hopefully it'll all fall together as a team.

I know the Australian players all tried their best. I was certainly happy with Peter's performance - he's done really well. He hasn't disgraced himself and he also made a few runs along the way.

There's an upcoming practice match in Scotland but Peter's having about five days off, sightseeing with Kat in Paris.

It will probably do him good to get away from the group for a while and to reflect. The Ashes may be over but there's still potentially a lot more cricket for Peter to play.

He probably won't be back in Australia until the middle of November - that's such a long time. I might have to go for a visit!