Olympics: Three lingering questions ahead of Paris for the Australian Boomers
The Boomers are preparing for the Paris Olympics, less than a year on from their worst tournament since 2014. Will they be able to address the issues that got them undone at last year's World Cup?
It seems like only yesterday that the Boomers were gearing up for the FIBA World Cup, jetting off to Okinawa with “Gold Vibes Only” and high hopes for success. The expectations from the Australian public might have been even higher – with a squad featuring nine NBA players going up against a field missing some of the biggest stars in the world, there was genuine belief that the team might challenge for a second major medal, or even top spot on the podium.
Credit: FIBA
Less than twelve months later, the Boomers are back in camp like they never left. Plenty has happened in the time in between, most notably a World Cup campaign where they slumped to a tenth-place finish, the team’s worst at a World Cup or Olympics since 2014. That NBA-laden squad was maybe the most talented that Australia’s men’s side has produced, but they never truly meshed on the court and crashed out of the tournament in quick time.
In hindsight, that maybe shouldn’t have been a surprise. With a number of players brought in for their first major tournament and a shuffling of roles, teething issues were inevitable. Goorjian maintained lofty goals ahead of the tournament, but that’s something he too admitted after the fact. “With change, with inexperience, style of play, playing together was a process that was going to take some time,” he said after their final game.
From early reports out of training camp, it seems that this year’s Boomers are desperate to speed up that process and bounce back strongly in Paris. With 17 players still in contention for the final 12-man roster, the first handful of practices have been competitive, physical, and played at an exceptionally high level.
“I think there's an element of nervousness about making the squad,” Goorjian told ESPN after the second day of camp. “Last time, I felt like, within the 17, there was a lot of 'thank you for letting me be here'. This is, everyone looking over their shoulders: 'you see that, I'm f--kin in'.”
As always, it’s a fairly limited preparation for these Olympics – a drop-in camp held in Los Angeles in early June, a pair of games in Melbourne played tonight and on Thursday, and games against the United States and Serbia in Abu Dhabi in a fortnight. The issues that brought the Boomers undone remain fresh in the memory, and questions still lingering; how might they be answered this time around?
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