The National Team has officially hit the road on the way to Poland for the World Games, and by the road, we mean the air. Team members all jetted out on Monday evening, with the team assembling in Dubai on Wednesday morning (ACST). The team will now continue on to the Netherlands, where they will once again be hosted by KV Wageningen, who have been gracious hosts to Korfball Australia, as well as many of the individuals in the National Team, on multiple occasions previously. We thank them again for their continued hospitality and support.

 

While in the Netherlands, the team will quickly acclimatise, and then complete the final preparations before heading over to Wroclaw. While the exact details of these preparations are a tightly held secret, focused training sessions and practise matches against a wide range of teams are sure to be a large component. One aspect of this years preparations we do know about is an international “friendly” against Germany, in Germany, on Sunday morning, the 16th (German time, Sunday afternoon). The opportunities for friendlies are few and far between for Australian representative teams, and the players are sure to be looking forward to this match. Australia are not scheduled to play Germany until a possible match-up in the cross-over rounds, making this a great chance to add another opposition country to the players resume.

 

Speaking of schedules, the full World Games schedule, as well as pool ladders, Australian team list with stats, and everything else World Games related, can now be found on the National Team page. All news, updated information and scores will be added to this page as soon as it comes to hand, including any information on live streaming or text feeds as we get it. As well as the National Team page, all Australian matches, both upcoming and resulted, can be found on the homepage. On top of this, a countdown to the next Australian match can be found on the bottom of every single page on the site.  This countdown is currently ticking away until 4:15AM (ACST) on the 22nd of July, when the Australian team kicks off their campaign against the Belgians, just like at the World Championships in 2015. Luckily, the other two pool matches are at the far more reasonable time of 9:00PM (ACST), on the 22nd and the 23rd, and the times for the cross-over matches will be announced as they’re released.

 

As an added bonus this year, we are pleased to announce that each member of the National Team will be contributing to our newest feature, The Players Diary. This blog series will give inside access to the National Team, and help shed some light on what goes into representing your country at an International Tournament. Getting the unique perspective from each player is bound to be interesting, so stay tuned for that. Blogs will be available on the National Team page and the homepage, and will be shared on all our normal social channels.

 

To the National Team, safe travels on the rest of your trip, good luck, and we’re sure you will do your supporters here in Australia, and around the world, extremely proud.