CANBERRA (FIBA Women's World Championship/2015 FIBA Oceania Women's Championship) -Australia are the No. 2 team in the FIBA bwin Ranking Women and have played at the last five Olympics, claiming medals each time.
But Opals coach Brendan Joyce says there are no sure things in sports and is warning his players to be focused and ready for the FIBA Oceania Women's Championship battles (15 and 17 August) when they will have to win against New Zealand's Tall Ferns if they plan on taking part in the Rio de Janeiro Games next year.
Speaking following the announcement that six of his 12 players from the FIBA Women's World Championship are in the 18-strong squad that will train at Gosford, north of Sydney, for an upcoming tour of Europe, Joyce said: "I don't take anything for granted.
"We are going to put the best team on the floor that we possibly can."
There’s no Olympic Games unless we beat New Zealand -Joyce
The squad does not have Penny Taylor, Erin Phillips or Marianna Tolo, arguably the three most important players in last year's team.
But Rebecca Allen, Nat Burton, Cayla Francis, Rachel Jarry, Tessa Lavey and Belinda Snell all reached the podium at Turkey 2014 and are again in the group that will be involved in the workouts at Gosford from 27 April to 2 May.
They will be keen to build on last summer's run which saw the Opals fall just once, to the United States in the Semi-Finals.
