Q and A with the head coach
of Australia's men's national team, Russell Borgeaud
04/04/2006
Q: You have a tough group, with Brazil, France, Greece, Cuba and Germany in Pool B in Fukuoka. What are your chances of finishing in the top four to advance to the second round?
A: Approximately 66%.
Q: The opposition provides a variety of volleyball styles, from the Americas and Europe. How will you prepare to face these different styles?
A: We will play countries from both of these regions again this year. We play teams from around the world every year so that we might stay abreast of the different styles.
Q: Please give details of training camps in the build-up to the World Championships? Will you train only in Australia, or travel overseas?
A: The players will begin training with the national team on 15th May through until September. In November we will train and play matches in Australia for preparation as we are in the same time zone as Japan. So we will arrive late to the World Championships.
Q: You will not be playing in the World League 2006. So which tournaments will you enter to gain game practice?
A: We will travel to Europe and Canada in August then the players must go to their professional clubs in September. We will have more match practice in November, before the World Championships.
Q: How popular is volleyball in Australia, compared to rugby union, rugby league, cricket, Aussie Rules, soccer, basketball etc.?
A: Volleyball is one of the most popular sports in the high schools in Australia. Although the standard isn’t extremely high in the majority of schools, the number of teams playing is very large. The other sports that you mention are certainly more popular spectator sports in this country as they are all (except for basketball) quite traditional sports. Some of these sports, however (notably rugby league and union), have quite small numbers playing when compared to volleyball.
Q: Any interesting facts/background about any of your players?
A: Three of our players -- Dan Howard, Ben Hardy and Hidde Van Beest -- will be playing in their third World Championships. We have quite a tall squad with nine players 205cm or taller.
Q: What is the nickname of the Australian men's national volleyball team? The Volleyroos, perhaps?
A: Please don’t call us the Volleyroos, as in our country we have the “Socceroos”, the “Hockeyroos”, the “Kangaroos” (rugby league)! There is an Australian volleyball magazine, called Spike, that is holding a competition to find a name for the team. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Note: Russell Borgeaud is the head coach of the men's volleyball programme at the Australian Institute of Sport, and took part in this Question and Answer session for the World Championships official website (www.2006vball.jp).
