Some of the player have sold their cars in order to come, shocks the head coach of Australia

B e r o u n – Australian national team will come with a roster diversified after last year. "We will bring five core players, who were in Italy last year, with addition of seven new players," says David Haynes, the head coach of Australia.

The Australian Men´s Inline Hockey Team is looking to improve on their consecutive 13th world ranking achieved at the previous two world championships. The roster will consist of more names this year. "The addition of seven new players to the squad could be the difference as last year it was only a narrow one goal pool game loss to Spain which denied them to be top of their pool and guaranteed top eight."

How difficult do you expect this year´s tournament to be?
Team officials expect every game to be very tough as the Australian Team has not had the opportunity to train together before the tournament ommences. Lack of funding and the vast areas from across Australia make it difficult for the Team to get together before departure.

There wasn´t any special training camp before the championship?
Players will probably play in the same line-ups as they do in clubs, so everything depends on how they easily they adapt. We lack some practise, but we replace it with our effort. We do not lie down. And we´re mentally strong. We hope the orginising comittee will help us and let us practise before the official practise.

What result will you be satisfied with?
As with any team, you always want to improve from your best result and achieve a medal result. Team management is quietly confident that this year the Team will tunr some heads and stop and notice the way we play.

How popular is inline hockey in your country? Are there any professionals?
Inline hockey in Australia is not a mainstream sport and does not receive any funding. Players attending this year have sacrificed a lot in terms of travelling between 25 - 40 hours to arrive in Beroun. Players have sold their cars, fund raised or even taken out personal loans in order to have the money to come and compete. There is no professional Inline hockey in Australia.

Are you worried about jetlag?
Jetlag is always an issue when travelling from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere. Thgis is one of the main reasons Australia arrives earlier than other countries. It is a factor that we need to plan for in terms of adjusting to different sleeping and eating times. With planning, we are hopeful that this will not affect our performances.

Who do you think will play the gold medal game?
I think it will be the Czech republic and the USA.