Olympic Qualifications and upcoming events

Well the Olympic Qualification Tournament did not go as well as hoped and we did not qualify for the olympics. Truthfully we werent a good enough team at the tournament, I thought we played some of our best Volleyball in the matches in Europe leading up to the tournament, but we did not replicate this consistently in Japan when we needed to.

What exactly happened, well to be honest there were a lot of factors. We started the tournament great disposing of Thailand and Argentina without losing a set. However the Italian game was one to forget. It was just one of those games where nothing went right. I remember asa a team we missed the sideline or the baseline on a spike at least by a foot or less maybe 10 times for the match. On top of that Italy played a great game, they sided out well and read our attack very well and were able to get some good blocks on us. I think in a way we suffered a little mentally after this match. We were high in conifidence and form and this wasn't how we had hoped the match would go.


Going into the Korean match we knew it was going to be tough, although we had beaten them in the past it was always in 5 sets. Unfortunatelly we were on the losing end of the 5 set battle that day. We played alright and I thought things were looking good at 2-1 up, but we couldn't find a way to finish them off. The 5th set was pretty shocking all round and we were all dissapointed after the match.


The Japanese game was a similar story. We fought and fought but we were never able to again find our side-out rhythm at all and that is enough to lose to a quality side. In a way the difference was that Japan were a solid and well drilled 'team.' It didn't feel like we had quite the team unity and understanding that we did at the World Cup and Asian Championships.
By this time our dream was over. We beat Algeria 3-1 in a game that wasn't really a very high level. then lost to Iran in 3, dissapointing way to end the tournament.

On a personal level when I look back on the entire tour after a little time to think about things. I was happy with how I performed as a whole. I would however love to go back in time and play some points differently at the Qualifying tournament......but I guess you live and you learn! I ended up finishing 2nd in spiking for the tournament behind Alessandro Fei, i think that will give me confidence to back my style of play now that I know it can be successful when at major tournaments.

So after the tournament I went home to Adelaide for about 10 days simply to unwind. I have never been so physically and mentally shattered from a tour before. I didn't even want to think about Volleyball at all (and for those of you who know me....THATS BIG)

So now I've been training back at the AIS for about 3 weeks. Actually 1 really, i had a bit of Quad tendanopothy for the first 2 weeks so I was not doing full training, it seems to be 85-90% of the way there now. We are off on another tour to Tunisia, Italy and Canada. It'll be interesting, to be completely honest I'm not sure how ready I'am to go back on tour again. It would be nice just to stay in Aus for at least 1 solid block for once. However hopefully we can get some good results.

I've also signed in Greece A1 for next year with a club called Apollon Kalamaria in a town called Thessaloniki. Really looking forward to playing in such a strong league and I'm sure I'll learn a lot playing against some of the best players in the world!!