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The Australian Steelers are aiming to write a perfect ending to a redemption story three years in the making when their Paris Paralympic Games campaign begins on Thursday.
The Steelers are desperate to atone for their bitterly disappointing Tokyo 2020 campaign which saw them miss a Paralympic medal for the first time since 2004. They claimed gold at Rio 2016 and London 2012.
Since finishing fourth in Tokyo, they won the 2022 World Championship, the 2023 World Cup, regained the world No.1 ranking and generated an insatiable grudge against those teams who knocked them off the Paralympic medal podium.
At the top of that list is Great Britain, the current reigning Paralympic champions, and their opponents in the first game.
It’s a battle Australian head coach Brad Dubberley has been waiting 1,095 days for.
“Playing Great Britain in the first game of the tournament, it is huge motivation to be honest.” Dubberley said.
“Tokyo sucked big time for a lot of us.
“As the defending Paralympic champions, they took our title away from us. It was ours for a long time and now we want it back.
“We just need to make sure we’re ready to play and play the way we know we can. If we can play our style of rugby, we’ll have a really good tournament.
“If you’re not at a Paralympics and ready to go, you shouldn’t be here.”
The Australians have spent the past week in Paris and have prepared strongly, with practice matches against Germany and Japan at the Champ de Mars Arena situated in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
With six Paralympic debutants, the team also features three female athletes, the largest representation among the eight competing teams.
Denmark and France are the other teams Australia will face in Pool B while Japan, Germany, USA and Canada will do battle in Pool A.
“It’s great to finally be here after a long campaign,” Dubberley said. “Our team loves the venue and the court. It’s a fast court and it’s going to be very cool when the stands are full and with all the noise that the fans are going to bring.
“We’re coming in as world No.1, but we know the level of competition here has never been higher.
“Of course we have a target on our back, we always do. It’s something we’re used to. But from a coaching perspective, I’ll be punching into our guys about how we’re the underdogs here.”
On the verge of captaining the Steelers for the first time at a Paralympic Games after 246 international appearances, captain Chris Bond said he was ready to go.
“We’ve got a lot of experience in our team and you need to have a good balance of some fresh blood and some old hats,” he said.
“It makes for a good mix. So, we’re very confident. We know what we can do, we know we can beat every team here, we just have to get it right on the day.
“I thought I might be retiring after Tokyo, but I love it too much and we’ve had a lot of success. Now I’m the captain, I’ve got another element of that leadership which keeps bringing me back, and I really enjoy that.”
The Steelers face Denmark at the Paris Paralympic Games at 11:30am CET / 7:30pm AEST on Thursday.
By: Tim Mannion, Paralympics Australia
Published: 28th August 2024
