Only three players remain from Australia's last Ashes victory but that triumph has been emphasised internally as the blueprint for this summer in the lead-up to the first Test starting at the Gabba on Thursday.

While Steve Smith's side began training in Brisbane on Monday they have held team meetings since assembling at the weekend, with Haddin, a hero of the 2013-14 rout and now Australia's fielding coach, taking centre stage on Sunday.

Australian quicks Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood revisited footage of Johnson's exploits in their own get-together, but Haddin was able to give a first-hand account of what it took to crush England.

Smith, vice-captain David Warner and spinner Nathan Lyon are the only players in the current squad who have featured in a successful Ashes campaign and they also contributed to the discussion behind closed doors.

"We know what we have to do. We know the feeling we need to create in the inner sanctum," Lyon said. "I feel like that feeling if it's not there already, it's getting there quite quickly.

"We just spoke about our experiences. There's a lot of new guys. I've been talking about it to a couple of guys saying an Ashes home series is different to any other series you've played, so it's exciting. There's adrenaline, there is a lot of hype, there is a lot of media talk, there are a lot of different pressures. It's unbelievable to play Ashes cricket, especially at home, and we're just talking about that.

"If we can relive that year, that series a couple of years ago when we won 5-0, it will be one hell of a party at the end of it."

The discussion about 2013-14 stretched beyond on-field tactics, with Lyon and co speaking to newer teammates about trying to replicate the one-for-all culture that was the bedrock of the whitewash of Alastair Cook's tourists.

On the ground Michael Clarke's team was ultra-aggressive that summer and while it has been uncertain if Smith's side would go down that path, Lyon reinforced Warner's prediction of words being exchanged from the outset at the Gabba.

"It's Ashes cricket, mate. It's not grade cricket, down playing against mates you play every second week," he said.

"It's England v Australia, as an Australian kid growing up, you wanted to play an Ashes series. There's going to be banter, there's going to be heated moments, there's going to be all these things. And so there should be. It's Ashes cricket. I'm all for it. There's a line. We'll headbutt the line but we won't go over it."

Australia's fast bowlers bypassed the in-room movies at the the team hotel and opted for alternative entertainment - watching video of Johnson running riot in the last home Ashes, in particular hostile deliveries from his series-defining performance at the Gabba.

"The ones that stick out to me are at the Gabba and seeing a couple of their bowlers - Stuey Broad and [James] Anderson - from our point of view they looked like they didn't want to be out there," Cummins said. "They didn't want to bat. They would try and swerve away from the balls before he'd kind of even released them. Hopefully we can create that kind of anxiety in them. Seeing his highlights up here at the Gabba, it was pretty awesome."

Shane Warne believes Cummins should be used by Smith in a similar role to Johnson with short, explosive spells and the 24-year-old, having had the enormity of the left-armer's efforts rammed home to him at the weekend, is up for the challenge.

"We are lucky to have Warner, Lyon and Smithy there but also Brad Haddin and Ryan Harris have been around a little bit and showing the impact that [Johnson] had that transcended the cricket field," Cummins said.

"It put fear in them when they were sitting around waiting to bat. In between games they were thinking about him, how they were going to face him. [We were] just talking about the environment they created that series, the way they played the game, trying to replicate that somehow with our squad."