Swimming: The dream teams, all gold and all black Aussies pool resources to spread word

Worry not if you don't know all the words to Australia's rallying sports cry. By the end of the week it will be bouncing around the inside of your head, a novelty at first, but one which refuses to wear off. "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, oi, oi! Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, oi, oi! Aussie! Oi! Aussie! Oi! Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!" You have been warned.

When Australia's 42-member swimming squad touches down at Manchester

Airport today, having spent much of the past week acclimatising in Stuttgart, they will not have too much to declare to customs officials, apart from their brilliance and desire to win, win, win. Departure date, however, will be different, trolleyfuls of gold being part of their duty-free allowance.

The reality of a United States-free Commonwealth means the Australians will dominate in the pool; there is little point in debating the matter. The extra-ordinary preparation they took for the long flight from Sydney alone shows how serious they are about Manchester 2002. And Athens 2004, one assumes.

On the plane, Qantas naturally, each member wore a humidifying face mask to combat jet lag and sore throats, as well as DVT stockings throughout the 30-hour trip to Stuttgart. The revolutionary humidifier, devised and supplied by the New South Wales Institute of Sport, is placed over the face during long flights and allows moisture to be reinhaled. Confirmation that these Australians really are breathtaking.

"World records come and go, mate," said Ashley Callus, a member of the all-conquering 4 x 100m freestyle relay team and now emerging as a serious individual threat to Ian Thorpe's global dominance in the two-lap sprint, "but once you're an Olympic, world or Commonwealth champion they can't take that away from you."

Callus, a strapping 6ft 2in, 187lb Queenslander, is a long way behind Thorpe's ever-growing list of major titles, but cracked his first individual gold in the world short-course championship 100m in Moscow earlier this year. He is also as important a member as Thorpe of the revamped relay squad, which is missing the injured Michael Klim and Chris Fydler from the quartet which so joyously beat the USA at Sydney 2000. On that occasion Klim reacted to victory by playing an air guitar in the direction of the Americans. The fat lady had sung and the crowd started: "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, oi, oi!" You'll soon know the feeling.

With Klim and Fydler absent, Grant Hackett, primarily a 1500m specialist who also happens to swim 100, 200 and 400m very, very quickly – a fortnight ago he lowered his own 400m short-course world record in Hong Kong, the 11th of his career – steps up to join Thorpe, Callus and Todd Pearson. They will not be denied. "We are a complete unit. We want to win, we know the expectations of us," says Callus. No man is bigger than this team, not even Thorpe and his size 17s.

Just as the rugby All Blacks have shown they are more than a one-man Jonah Lomu force of destruction – amazingly he has never scored a try against South Africa in 11 matches – this Australian squad keeps unearthing new talent.

An Australian swimming teamsheet without the names Michael Klim and Susie O'Neill (not to mention Sam Riley) is much like an Australian cricket XI without Steve and Mark Waugh; they are hardly missed. Into Klim's place comes Todd Pearson, while Petria Thomas finally gets an opportunity to prove that she is more than O'Neill's long-time shadow in the butterfly event.

However, suggestions that they will win all 42 golds in Manchester have been dismissed out of hand. "There have been some outlandish statements in this regard," says Dave Mason, a spokesman for the squad. "We can't [win all the golds], but rest assured everything is being done to ensure the team stay top of the world."

The pinnacle was reached in last year's world championships in Fukuoka. In one of sport's most compelling rivalries, Australia managed to wrench control from the US, and in Thorpe they have an athlete going to great lengths to prove he is the best ever. And he is still 19. Amid all talk of the individual dominance of Tiger Woods and Michael Schumacher, Thorpe has been forgotten. Cue "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, oi, oi!" over and over.

Given that Thorpe "only" won three gold medals at Sydney 2000 and four at

Kuala Lumpur in 1998, the seven many expect him to pack away with his luggage in a week's time might be a touch ambitious. The three relays should provide golds, Callus could threaten in the 100 free, ditto Hackett in the 200 and 400, but it's in the 100m backstroke that Matt Welsh might end that particular ambition. Welsh is Australian, of course. It's that kind of Commonwealth Games.