The 2010 women’s water polo team and the AIS squad have been announced with WAIS scholarship holders featured in both.
Gaby Domanic, Zoe Arancini, Gemma Beadsworth, Jemma Dessauvagie have been named in the women’s water polo team to tour Canada and the USA and also the AIS squad for December 2009 till May 2010.
The Australian Women’s team just concluded their training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport. The Head Coach Greg McFadden was very satisfied with the camp as it enabled them to reassess the past 12 months whilst also planning the next 12 months. The camp allowed them to identify the areas that need focus and need to be improved on.
“Training I believe went very well as it allowed us to work in small specific groups”.
“We also started working on our strategies that we are looking to incorporate on the upcoming tour to Canada and USA.”
The touring team for the Canada Cup and Holiday Cup include: Victoria Brown (VIC, 85) and Kelsey Wakefield (QLD, 91) as goalkeepers. Gemma Beadsworth (WAIS, 87), Jemma Dessauvagie (WAIS, 86) Bronwen Knox (QAS, 85), and Elise Rossato (VIC, 89) as the centre forwards, Rowena Webster (VIC, 87), Sophie Smith (QAS, 85) and Nicola Zagame (NSWIS, 90) as centre backs, Isobel Bishop (SA, 91), Zoe Arancini (WAIS, 91) Melissa Rippon (QAS, 81), Gaby Domanic (WAIS, 85) were selected as the counter attackers, drivers and shooters. With the Total in the team being 13, selected for this team were four WAIS athletes.
“The team that has been selected for the tour is a relatively inexperienced group with the unavailability of some key players through injuries and personal reasons. However, I believe that some of these players who are being given this opportunity will hopefully make the most of their chances and will play a very big part in the lead up to London.”
The touring party departs Australia on the 1st of December 2009, arriving back in Australia on 15th of December 2009.
“During the Institute Challenge and the training camp we were able to conduct a battery of tests and evaluation of all the individual players to select the AIS training squad for the next six months.”
“Only players who had passed the targets that had been set for the AIS squad were considered for selection. All of these players will be selected for the training camp 7th to the 14th January with another 4 to 6 players who may be invited to attend this camp after the Canada/USA tour.”
– Laura Halden
