The Australian Rollers have made a statement ahead of the IWBF World Championships to be hosted in Ottawa in September with a major triumph over heavyweights at the Toronto Invitational.
The Rollers were near their formidable best to topple top-ranked USA 77 – 68 in the gold medal game overnight.
It was vindication for Brad Ness and the Rollers who were moments away from bettering the Americans in the group stage.
“I feel like we should have probably beaten them in the pool rounds, we had two free throws with seconds to go but couldn’t get it done and lost in overtime,” said Ness.
“The difference in this one was that we we’re able to settle and sustain momentum. We were down by about six in the second quarter but could sense we were pushing the advantage,” he added.
“We kept making our shots, applying pressure and they committed eight fouls in the second quarter alone. We knew they couldn’t sustain it. Once we got a bit of separation we never looked back which was really pleasing.”
There’s been a commitment from Ness and the Rollers to open their game style to enable the athletic and aggressive strengths of the playing group.
This was on full display against the USA with a dynamic group of ball handlers featuring Tom O’Neill-Thorne, Tristan Knowles, Jaylen Brown and Luke Pople stretching the floor and an aggressive and suffocating defence challenging the USA to move the ball under consistent pressure.
Like any adjustments to game style, the journey hasn’t been linear, but it’s starting to hold up against the best in the world.
“Although we didn’t get the result we wanted at Paris 2024, there were a lot of learnings from it. We did a tour of Europe after that tournament and one of the main insights was that when we go hard up the floor defensively, we were better,”
“It’s almost been a natural, organic evolution of this team, because if we tell them, go push hard for 40 minutes and sustain pressure up the court, it suits the guys we have and their strengths,”
“I sort of had to release the shackles. Our guys have been doing it now for just over a year, and they've become accustomed to the fact that they need to be able to push both ways, full court, which is the hardest thing to do. And they're starting to show that they can do it.”
Everything is building nicely for the Rollers who have clear sights on the IWBF World Champs to be hosted in Ottawa from 9 – 19 September later this year.
The team will hold a preparation camp in Melbourne in August with further competitive matches planned in the USA ahead of the major tournament.
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