Hello! This is days 1 and 2 of the Player’s Diary.

On Day 1 we all arrived at Adelaide airport at 8:30 in the morning. Checked in, went through security and got on our plane with no problems. The safety briefing was very entertaining as it was in the form of a music video, something none of us had experienced before. The flight went well and I was surprised that it only took 2 movies and 1 solid session of Nintendo Switch Mario Kart with Tom to kill all 7 hours.

We arrived at Malaysia and were admiring the huge amount of beautiful palm trees when our plane suddenly shot back up, off the runway and into the sky. Ready to head back to Adelaide we thought? Or maybe the Captain had got the wrong country? But no “due to unforeseen circumstances” our landing was delayed 15mins. The aviation professionals (the boys) in our team are convinced that the unforeseen circumstances were actually due to the pilots lack of skill. Either way we arrived safely in Malaysia.

We were welcomed by some friends with yummy Malaysian snacks. We munched away on these as we sat for the hour long drive to our hotel. Getting out of the bus we were confronted with temperatures so hot and humid that it felt like a slap in the face. Everyone got their dinners and room mates and headed promptly to bed to get some rest before our first day of training tomorrow!

We all met for breakfast at 8am in the hotel lobby. There was an amazing variety of food and drink at the breakfast buffet but unfortunately the hash browns appeared to be missing potato and were all crumb…

Later on we met in the lobby at 10:15 to catch our bus to the stadium for training. We shared this ride and the court with the boisterous Kiwis. The humid heat took a while to figure out how to breathe in and all our shirts were soaked instantly (the team sweat towels were DEFINITELY a good investment). We all marvelled at the biggest korfball court we’d ever seen and the actually painted on penalty and free pass lines. Then we got into training!

We did some regular game warmup activities and feeding drill for a short period of time before getting ready for 8×8 with the NZ team. We played well and kept it light and friendly. Some amazing free passes were scored by Mia and Taylah. After the game Nat ran a cool down, stretching session for us and we enjoyed lunch just outside the stadium (roast chicken and tofu).

Once we were back at the hotel Nat called us all for a pool recovery session. We all arrived early and played a game we invented that involved throwing a small bouncy ball at the side of the hotel and then fighting to be the one to catch it and throw the next one (it’s actually very advanced and obviously involved a lot of strategy and athleticism). Nat’s recovery session was heaps of fun. We were all laughing the whole way through it and I really felt my muscles working in the water! I think we will all be much less sore than usual tomorrow.

Off to bed now. We are all both excited and terrified of playing Chinese Taipei tomorrow.

Thanks for reading this! Your support is appreciated!!