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‘I’ll never let us experience that again’: Rebuilding the Opals
Sandy Brondello does not want to talk about Tokyo, and this is understandable.
The head coach of the Australian Opals has little motivation to detail that disappointing Olympic quarter-final loss from 2021. Even less to revisit the events that led there – a friendly scrimmage turned very unfriendly skirmish against the Nigerian D’Tigress in Las Vegas, with accusations of racial abuse from a wayward Aussie star, who soon departed the national team forever. Only a masochist would go there.
“Everyone knows the story,” says Brondello, nodding in weary acceptance of the interest. “It was difficult for all of us. We didn’t fulfil our goal, and we had a lot of reasons, but it wasn’t just one incident – it was lack of preparation, missing a main player, changing an entire system. But after that my reflection was simple: I’ll never let us experience that again. I felt we got away from living our culture the best we could. So we made some changes, because that’s what you do.”
Culture is funny like that. It can seem an ethereal thing – ineffably growing within a group – the leaders sprouting and the rest learning by cross-pollination. The Opals already had an enviable root system, established during the days of legendary coach Tom Maher. It was a well-developed brand with a well-earned reputation: work ethic off court, fighting every second on court. “But this is probably a little bit different,” Brondello clarifies. “I’ve never been a part of a culture as strong as the current Opals.”
Yet this current cultural revolution wasn’t so much natural as concocted – not organic but created. It was an ethos consciously and forensically conceived, largely in January 2022, during a routine training camp, in a meeting room at a hotel in Homebush in Sydney.
There was no one mastermind. This rebuild required a team, including everyone from Opals manager Trish Fallon and coach Cheryl Chambers, to former Hockeyroo Jo Banning – the team’s media liaison in Tokyo, who lent a hand as a kind of cultural guide – all with supervision from team psychologist Karen Haddad.
Opals capatin Tess Madgen (left) has since 2022 been a constant driver of a new culture within the squad.Credit: Getty Images
“They put their heads together, and started doing some team bonding activities,” explains Brondello, and questions were asked. “What’s the legacy we want to leave behind when we all finish here? What are the values of the team that we want to live by?”
Two years later, the importance of the answers they found is writ large on the face of captain Tess Madgen. The team’s spiritual (and literal) leader spoke to the Herald and The Age shortly before the Olympics – back in the bowels of John Cain Arena in Melbourne, in the wake of a 91-63 tune-up victory over China – with tears first in her eyes, then streaming down her cheeks.
Madgen remembers the sessions and facilitators, and the way the team was broken into groups to identify the words that would from hereon define the Opals – their new guiding principles. She also remembers vividly how her group – featuring Brondello and Chambers, along with veterans Cayla George and Sami Whitcomb – initially drowned out the voices of the other groups. It was a wake-up call.
“We had an anonymous survey vote instead. Every single person got a say – role players and starters – and it was awesome. It was the right thing to do – this stepping away from hierarchy. It empowered everyone.”
The four words they came up with? United, Professional, Feared, and Sisterhood.
All of which was then embodied in a single team slogan: We are the Opals, United by the legacy of our Sisterhood. Feared and Professional, we inspire the future in our aim to be the world’s best.
Those are the overarching themes – call it the aspirational lexicon – but there’s also room for old-fashioned locker-room laws, like the “no dickheads rule” unashamedly instituted by Brondello. “I tell all my players really directly, and I swear a little bit, too. I say, ‘I don’t care who the eff you are, you have to be a good human being. You have to live by the values of the Opals or you won’t be an Opal’.”
Another rule? “No negativity or complaining – it doesn’t help anyone,” Brondello adds. “We can have discussions, but we don’t want bad energy.”
Respect is important as well, not just in interpersonal dealings but with the simple act of punctuality, because it affects performance. “The world has gotten better – that’s a fact – so we have to take care of all the small things.”
Happy days: Lauren Jackson shares a joke at training.Credit: FIBA
But these maxims are just remainders in the larger cultural equation faced by the wider group. “I’m not a dictator. Culture is driven by the players, like the leadership group of Tess Madgen, Sami Whitcomb and Steph Talbot,” Brondello says. “I’ve spoken to some newcomers recently, and they all say they’ve never been a part of something so unique. It’s so competitive, but the connection and commitment and support they have for each other is so deep. And that makes me smile. We can be tough – we want to be gritty – but we play in the right way.”
Lauren Jackson is now a five-time Olympian – therefore as good a judge as any of the Opals culture – and credits Madgen as the central softening presence in this group. Jackson noticed it immediately upon walking back into the squad two years ago ahead of the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Sydney. Where once a sink-or-swim directive dominated, the Opals now prioritised putting an arm around everyone. That didn’t just put rookies at ease, but even the likes of Jackson herself, who had been petrified to walk back into the team as a veteran in her 40s.
“I didn’t know what people were thinking, but I tried to put myself in their situation, and I don’t think I would have taken it very well if I was young. And those girls just put their arms around me and made me feel like I was part of something special.
“I was like, ’This is different - this has melted my heart. I’ve been in ruthless teams. I’ve been that leader. I didn’t want to know about drama and what was going on with people off court, but it’s not as simple as that. It takes so much more to win now, and I’ve learnt that.”
Madgen is flattered, and happy that it seems to be paying dividends with team results on court, as well as with individuals like teenage newcomer and Olympic debutante Isobel Borlase. “I’m not saying that’s why Izzy is playing so good, but she’s out there doing her thing and knows she doesn’t have to worry about how anyone is gonna react,” Madgen says. “I think it’s an environment anyone can come into and feel welcome and valued and belong.”
The group has started doing vulnerability exercises, too, including everything from simple declarative messages about why each one wants to be an Opal, to the “Triple H” sessions made famous by everyone from the Atlanta Falcons to the Richmond Tigers, in which players stand in front of their peers and share three stories (about a Hero, Hardship and Highlight from their lives). “As a captain I keep trying to do those, so we can help know each other off the court, and you can just be your authentic self,” Madgen says. “When you have that trust, you can hold one another accountable.”
The whole group will be hoping these new cultural markers are on display this Monday at Pierre Mauroy Stadium in the French city of Lille (11am in Paris, 7pm local time), where they’re opening their Paris 2024 campaign against - as fate would have it - the Nigerian D’Tigress.
“There’s no bad blood between us. We know what went on against Nigeria,” Brondello re-emphasises. “But as a team, they’re very athletic, very dynamic. Sometimes they’re hard to scout because they play with a lot of freedom, so it’s about knowing their tendencies and what they want to do, and being able to match up with that.”
Jackson was just an observer during the calamitous campaign in 2021, and she felt for the girls - but she feels much better about it all now. “It’s hard when you see a campaign slip away like that, but it happens in sport,” Jackson says. “That’s where resilience is born. That’s where accountability is born. People talk about culture, but do they really understand what it is?”