While the road to Rio may be the immediate path for the Australian women’s water polo team, the Aussie Stingers, the trek to Tokyo has already begun with head coach Greg McFadden selecting a 2020 Olympic development team for a week-long tour of Japan.
The tour coincides with the trip to Montenegro, Rio and the USA being attended by the other half of the Aussie Stingers squad, and will focus predominantly on the development of players for the next Olympic cycle, with the 2017 FINA World Championships the first major tournament on that journey.
A beneficiary of this approach has been WAIS scholarship holder Dayna O’Leary who along with fellow Western Australian Sophie Pontre will make up part of the 13-strong squad.
The group will also be supported by WAIS women’s water polo head coach Georgina Kovacs, who will assist tour head coach Predrag Mihailovic.
Selected in this team is a mix of internationally experienced and inexperienced players, goalkeeper Lea Yanitsas spearheading the team, with McFadden saying that the 2013 world championship silver medallist could use this tour to get back to full fitness.
“For Lea this is a great opportunity, there isn’t much pressure on her and she can have a break if she needs it. The time in Japan will help her recover and get back to full fitness,” McFadden said.
“We also have a number of younger players who have already toured with the senior team, players like Ellodie Ruffin, Elle Armit Morgan Baxter and Maddy Steere and this is their chance to lead a team. They can all be dominant players, and most have had recent experience against Japan and should be the main players in this environment.
“This tour is important for Tokyo, we have some young girls going on this tour and when we get to 2020 they will be 21-22 years-old. This is their first step on the road to those Olympics.”
The tour reciprocates the effort of the Japanese, who recently joined the Stingers to assist them at the second half of their training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) earlier this month, with the Aussie team now looking to help Japan in their Olympic qualification.
“Hopefully this team can aid Japan in their quest for Olympic qualification in December. The trade-off for us is that more of our junior players will be exposed to international competition,” he said.
“The Japanese play a very mobile attacking game, you need to be switched on in defence and you can easily get caught out and excluded, so you need to defend well.”
Among those selected are five players who earlier this year won gold at the World University Games in Gwangju, Korea, including Ruffin, Armit and Steere as well as Pascalle Casey and Lena Mihailovic.
The team departs on Friday November 20, returning on Saturday November 28.
-WaterpoloAus
