Former national head swimming coach Don Talbot is concerned the saga surrounding the sacking of Brian Sutton from the Barcelona world championship team may damage Australia's performances.

"Any unrest is not good for a team, particularly at this stage coming in," he said as he watched the Australians train.

"We just don't know what the impact is going to be with the upset that they did have. That's an upset that we haven't had in Australia for a long time, that sort of thing.

"I'm sure nobody's feeling good about it. You just have to wait and see and hope that it hasn't done too much damage."

Nevertheless, Talbot supported the military-style discipline that led to Sutton's dismissal as head men's coach for Barcelona.

Talbot said it was important to "carry a big whip" if Australia wanted to win gold medals in international swimming.

Sutton was banished from the team after arriving at the pre-Barcelona training camp in Germany 24 hours late.

He later defended his position saying he wanted to travel with Elka Graham, who trains with him at Sydney University.

Graham, who was hospitalised last month with a heart condition, only obtained a medical clearance to travel and compete in Barcelona after the team had already left Australia for Europe.

Talbot was considered one of the toughest task masters in Australian sport before he stepped down from the head coach's role in 2001 after taking the national team to the top of the gold medal tally at the Fukuoka world championships.

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