Women look to Sydney Sevens
THE Rio party is over, it’s time for business.
That’s the mentality of the Australia’s Olympic champion women’s sevens team, who will attempt to pick up another piece of history by winning the first ever Sydney Sevens women’s tournament this week.
With Sydney Sevens now a three- day event combining both men and women’s World Sevens Series legs, the Aussie girls are determined to add the inaugural home title to the World Championship crown and Olympic title they famously won last year.
Going into the Sydney Sevens as favourites is high pressure already, and so too the public expectations attached to the Olympic gold medallists playing in front of home fans for the first time in a World Series tournament.
But just to raise the stakes even higher, the Australian team decided to place even more pressure on the pile: they’ve nominated Sydney Sevens as their AOC benchmark event for 2017.
If the Aussie girls win in Sydney, the 12 players selected will also claim an extra $ 20,000 each at the start of 2018. Athletes or teams get to pick one competition in a year to try to win the cash, as part of a AOC funding incentive program designed to keep athletes training toward the 2020 Olympics.
Almost anonymous this time last year, the names and profiles of stars like Charlotte Caslick, Emilee Cherry, Ellia Green and Emma Tonegato are now well known.
But after a disappointing second- placed finish to rivals New Zealand in the opening leg of the World Series in Dubai in December, the team decided it had to draw a line under the new post- Rio reality.
“We watched the ( Dubai) final and really was out of character, the way we played. The way we defended, they weren’t as hungry or as physical as we have been in the past,” coach Tim Walsh said.
“They were accountable and they pretty much put it on themselves about why they turned in that performance.”
A team meeting was called early in January where coaches, players and management agreed outside media commitments and sponsorship appearances would be kept to a bare minimum to ensure the focus and energy needed in Sydney wouldn’t be wasted.
“There is certainly potential for those ( outside media/ sponsorship) commitments things to get in the road, and that’s just another challenge that we have to deal with,” Walsh said.