Australia are bracing themselves for a brutal opening to Sunday's Four Nations clash with the Kangaroos expecting England to unleash the strong-arm tactics in a last-ditch bid to save their faltering campaign.

Test halfback Cooper Cronk said the home side was ready to have their cage rattled by an England side laced with plenty of big men capable of carrying out the bruising gameplan.

"Moving (Sam) Burgess into the front row and (Sean) O'Loughlin to five-eighth who is normally a backrower ... I think that shows their hand pretty much," Cronk said on the eve of the AAMI Park clash.

"They're going to come out and rattle our cage, play really physical the first 20 minutes through the middle third of the middle and not play too expansive and try and smack us around early on.

"They've got (James) Graham and Burgess who are very big humans ... moving another lock to five-eighth basically gives them six, seven running forwards."

"We need to if not match it, go past them, hopefully wear them down and take advantage of a few of their bigger guys around the middle of the ruck in the back end of halves."

Asked whether the Australians would attempt to sit back and just absorb the early onslaught, Cronk said it was vital his big men didn't take a backward step.

"I don't think you can dip the toe in and react to what happens - you need to go out there and start with a firecracker and get stuck into it.

"They've had a couple of critics get stuck into the this week and the coach's made a few changes which normally gets the team fired up."

In all there were 11 positional and personnel changes for the visitors, who need to win on Sunday or face the prospect of having nothing else but pride to play for in their final game against Papua New Guinea next weekend.

Cronk claimed criticism of the tourists following their opening loss to the Kiwis had been a tad harsh, with some claiming England weren't up to the standard of southern hemisphere opponents Australia and New Zealand.

The Melbourne playmaker - who will play his third Test on the trot in a No.7 jumper he is keen to make his own - said it was worth remembering the Kangaroos found themselves in the same must-win predicament heading into their second game of last year's tournament, which they eventually won.

"Last year we were in England's shoes this year, we played New Zealand and it was a draw and then the boys that played against England were under the pump to win that game because if they had lost we were in a lot of trouble," Cronk said.

"You can't build into a tournament, particularly when its four games.

"It's like a finals series, you lose the first one ... then you might be out second week and it's do-or-die from then on in."

The Australians had their final training run at AAMI Park on Saturday morning, while tournament officials were sent scurrying to find a training venue for England due to a lack of a suitable grounds in AFL-mad Melbourne.

Tournament rules permit only one pre-game training run at the game venue - which England used earlier in the week - and with Olympic Park next door already booked, the English were left to have their run on an open field on the other side of AAMI Park.

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