Being part of the national team trumped everything, so as well as playing with the Gems I was still competing around those commitments with the AIS development squad in the WNBL. We were all juniors in the AIS team and not expected to perform as well as the stronger adults, but we made it to the finals that year and ended up coming fifth in the league, a very respectable result. I was awarded Rookie of the Year in the WNBL and was awarded the monthly AIS Sports Star that July, and just after returning from Brazil in August I received an invitation to attend the Australian seniors camp.
When I found out I felt completely overwhelmed. At 15, I was going to an Opals camp, something I’d dreamt about for so many years was actually happening, I would be playing for Australia. By September 1997, less than a month after playing overseas for the Gems, I flew out with the Opals to the US and then Brazil to play two invitational tournaments.
Joining the Opals was the most refreshing experience of my life. I was a little apprehensive at first, fearing it was going to be like playing with the Gems for the first time, but it was the complete opposite. The older girls on the team took me under their wing. Rachael Sporn, Sandy Brondello, Shelley Gorman, they all made that experience so much easier for me. Those three in particular, before the days of ready access to internet and email, would write me letters and just be really inclusive, making it a smoother transition for me. The captain, Robyn Maher, was 37 and had even played basketball with my mum. All these mature women treated me like their little sister, and that changed me, I wasn’t so jaded going on trips with the Opals. I still had trouble with flying, but I didn’t hate going away anymore.
The first trip was to Colorado in the US, and I vividly remember my first game, I was so nervous. I was subbed in for my first minutes as a national team player, an Australian Opal, and felt overwhelming pride and apprehension, but forgot where I was meant to be on the court. I went blank momentarily, but I went out there, got the ball at the top of the three-point line and took a shot. The ball went straight through the basket, not even touching the rim. It was so sweet, and it was at that moment I thought, ‘Okay, I can do this, I can actually be here and do this!’.
Tom Maher was the Australian women’s senior coach, and that man was the toughest coach I ever had. He got the best out of me—he also instilled a culture of toughness among the Opals players, and that’s what I stepped into. He didn’t sugar-coat anything, he just said what needed to be said. Tom was a hard-arse coach, he was tough. I remember thinking, ‘If I do this right, if I shoot it straight, he’s not going to yell at me’. When he shouted at people to shoot straight, everyone in the stadium would stop and look at whoever he was yelling at. I hated that, especially when I was younger, but he knew how to get the best out of all of his players. He also demanded perfection, which was impossible, but we all wanted to be perfect for him. I tried, but even though I got nowhere near it he still gave me a lot of direction and focus. At that time, I don’t think anyone else could have got the best out of me like he did, maybe because I needed that toughness to really motivate me to want to be better. Personally, I thank him for that, and I think the Opals’ success began with him. Tom made our group of basketballers one of the finest teams in the world, and his legacy was that the Opals became a global force for a long time.
With the Opals, I travelled everywhere. Travelling on planes was still really difficult, but by the time I was 16 years old I’d flown so many times, and I felt so happy being in the Opals with those older women, that I started to become a little better with it all. I was never comfortable flying, but at least I wasn’t hyperventilating and crying all the time. We had that trip to Colorado in September, and Brazil at the end of 1997. Then Brazil again in early 1998, followed by Japan, Slovakia and Portugal in the lead-up to the 13th FIBA World Championship in Germany in May, just after my 17th birthday.
That two-week tournament is the biggest one for us outside of the Olympics. It was all still new to me, playing in the seniors, but once I stepped on to the court I wasn’t afraid of making mistakes, I wasn’t afraid of doing anything wrong. It was a really encouraging environment, the team wanted me to do well, they genuinely did, as friends and mentors. I was the baby of the team and any opportunity I got, I went out and took it. It was a great environment for my development, it was fun, and I just played. Anyone can get points on court, any player.
I guess when I was coming through, there weren’t too many players with both my height and agility. I could shoot the ball from different places, and because I could shoot it was difficult for people to guard (defend) me—and I could also drive and play inside the key. Technically, I was playing three different positions on the court. At that time, there weren’t too many people my size who could do that, so I was something of an anomaly. There were traditional post players who were my size, and they would play predominantly inside the key, they wouldn’t be outside as much as I was. They didn’t have my speed, or weren’t able to move like me, and that was the difference. There are some special kids coming through now who are my height and can do all of those things and better.
In Germany, we made it through to the semi-finals without a loss, playing against Brazil, Cuba, Congo, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary and Spain. For the first time in a world championship the Opals had the chance of a gold or silver, but only if we beat the Russians in the semi.
Our shooting let us down, we only landed 30 per cent of our field-goal attempts and the Russians beat us 82–76. Despite the missed chances with our field goals the Russians had only beaten us by six points, and although there was disappointment in the locker room after the game, Tom told us to concentrate on the game for bronze against Brazil that was less than 24 hours away. The Brazilians were the defending 1994 champions and they wanted that bronze, but so did we.
We’d been playing against the Brazilians in the lead-up to the world championships and really knew each other’s game. Our first game in the rounds against them had been tough, we’d only beaten them by one point. In the bronze medal match, we were in trouble at the start. Brazil were ahead in a 16–2 run in less than four minutes, and just before half-time they still led by 14 points. We fought back, but were still 12 points behind at half-time. In the second half, we came out and five minutes after the break wiped the deficit with a 15–3 run, before Annie La Fleur nailed a three-pointer ten minutes later. We took out bronze with a score of 72 to their 67 points. It was the first time the Australian senior team had won a medal in the FIBA World Championship, and everyone was over the moon, it was great. The US downed Russia 71–65, after our match.
Mum came to those championships, and it wasn’t until she was there with me that I realised that she’d done it all before, she’d played at two world championships. She must have been really happy, as she has a photo of the two of us in the hotel in Düsseldorf in Germany that takes pride of place on top of her cabinet at home. I’m so glad I was able to share all of that with her. Whenever my parents were around I always performed better, especially when I was younger, I don’t know why. A more supported feeling, perhaps. No matter what happens, I know Mum and Dad will be there, and that has always been my definition of safety and comfort. It didn’t matter whether I performed well or terribly, I knew that they would always support me and always love me. I still feel so blessed because of them.
There were a lot of US scouts at the championships. The WNBA had just started, and they saw me there—so I guess, looking back now, that tournament was my coming out into the world.