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Australia’s new-look women’s goalball team features a budding family dynasty, a trio of junior world champions and a legend returning as an assistant coach.
One question after the Belles’ stirring run at the Tokyo Paralympics, which earned them a Team of the Year nomination at the recent Paralympics Australia Awards, was how the program would adapt to the retirement of its three most experienced players.
Meica Horsburgh, Jenny Blow and Tyan Taylor had been the Belles’ backbone at three consecutive Games between 2012 and 2020 and were a driving force behind the team’s first-ever quarter finals appearance at Tokyo. It was a huge achievement against nations with major funding and much deeper talent pools.
The trio’s departure, as well as that of coach Peter Corr, opened a new era, which will start to take shape when the Belles compete at 2022 Asia Pacific Championships in Bahrain from July 20.
“The fact that the three girls retired has created an opportunity for new people to come in and this will be the first time they get to experience senior international goalball and really test where they’re at,” said coach Simon Smith, who was Corr’s assistant at Tokyo 2020.
“We’re rebuilding and creating opportunities for people involved in the program, but also opening the door for new players to step up.”
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The team selected for the regional championships in Bahrain is an intriguing mix. It includes three players with Paralympic experience: Brodie Smith, who is coach Simon Smith’s eldest daughter, Amy Ridley, who is the daughter of the national men’s team’s coach Andrew Ridley, and Raissa Martin, who competed at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
Of the three new players selected, Nikita Grosser and Jessica Clark were – along with Brodie Smith – members of the team that won Australia’s historic gold medal at the 2017 World Youth Championships.
Then there’s Molly Smith who, alongside Ridley, won the silver medal at the 2019 World Youth Championships. Fascinatingly, Molly Smith is also a daughter of the coach, meaning that if this combination is to be a long-term option, team dynamics would need to be carefully negotiated.
“For me, there’s the enjoyment of being able to be involved in sport with my kids. Goalball has always been a family thing that we’ve been able to do. I suppose that’s continuing on, just at a higher level,” Simon Smith said.
“But, even when just Brodie was involved in the program, it was very important to ensure that I didn’t appear to be giving her preferential treatment. Now, with Molly in the team, we need to make even more certain that everything is up front, especially in terms of selections.”
The foolproof device being used is having Corr and Horsburgh remain connected as selectors, alongside Smith, choosing squads to be recommended to Goalball Australia and ratified by Blind Sports Australia. The involvement of Horsburgh, especially, has come as a welcome surprise.
“Meica wanted to stay involved so I invited her to the monthly training camps and kept dropping hints about her becoming assistant coach,” Smith said. “Eventually she realised she could do it and add so much value to the program. It’s really exciting.”
Having Horsburgh as assistant coach (a duty Corr will take for the Asia Pacific Championships, as Horsburgh was unavailable) is a huge boost for Brodie Smith, who has the chance to become, like Horsburgh was, the team’s guiding force.
“Meica’s always been an inspiration to me,” Brodie Smith said. “I’ve looked up to her since I started playing and I would often tell my dad, ‘One day I’m gonna be like Meica’. She’s a phenomenal player.
“Being able to have someone of her experience to learn off and understand how she plays the game – and having the opportunity to implement it into my game – is something that’s really special and that I take great pride in.”
The eldest Smith daughter seems to have been destined for Belles leadership. Goalball came into her life when Simon discovered Brodie (and later his two other children) had retinitis pigmentosa, or tunnel vision. Simon eventually connected with Goalball Australia and was told by talent scouts that Brodie had the potential to travel the world with goalball if she applied herself to the elite pathway.
“On hearing that, I was like, ‘Yep, where do I sign up? Let’s go’,” Brodie said.
Smith senior started a hub in the Hunter region for local players, including his children, which still meets regularly to practice and play. Realising goalball offered him a unique way to bond with his kids, Smith learnt more and more about the game, while Brodie started to work towards playing at the Paralympics.
“By the time I was about 16 I’d fallen in love with the sport and wanted to take it further,” she said. “From that point I was trying to reach that ‘Meica level’.”
Smith made her Belles debut at the 2018 World Championships in Sweden but she had the precious opportunity to train with the team in the lead-up to the Rio 2016 Paralympics. It was during those sessions, she said, she learnt her foundational skills.
“The things I learnt from those senior players over the years were priceless. There are so many things I’ve learnt off those girls,” she said of Horsburgh, Blow and Taylor.
“Since they retired there’s definitely been a change in the way that the team functions. It’s very new and fresh and it’s exciting for me to move from being one of the younger players to being one of the more senior girls. I want to help build up the new players’ games and their skills so that they can grow and improve.
“I think this tournament in Bahrain will definitely open their eyes to the level that we all need to be at in order to qualify for Paris.”
By: David Sygall, Paralympics Australia
Posted: 18 July 2022
