Veteran centre Cayla George insists Nigeria loss won’t derail the Opals’ Paris Olympic dreams
The Opals are determined to fight their way to Olympics success, and will use one of the most controversial chapters in their history as inspiration to stick together and fight for their Paris dream.
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Veteran centre Cayla George has been through hell and back with her beloved Opals, so she isn’t going to let one poor loss bring her down.
The pain of Monday’s shock defeat against Nigeria is nothing compared to the mental toll the Liz Cambage drama had on George and her Aussie teammates.
Cambage’s verbal and physical rant in a private scrimmage on the eve of the Tokyo Games not only derailed the team’s preparation, but brought one of Australian sport’s most respected cultures to its knees.
The diabolic display against Nigeria did little to erase the past pain as the physical Africans dominated to record a boil over win, but George insists the team has moved on from the pre-Tokyo scuffle that rattled players and ruined Australia’s Tokyo Games campaign.
She says the Cambage setback has only made the Opals stronger and will steel them to fight back from their 0-1 group stage deficit to defeat Canada on Thursday.
“This group is resilient, so I have no doubt in my mind that our goal remains the same.
“This is just something that we have to work through. As for the (Cambage drama), there is no residue or anything from both sides.
“Nothing.
“It’s not ideal and it isn’t the way we wanted to start, but we have to bounce back really quickly.
“We have to get these next two wins. Our goal remains the same.”
The Opals forced themselves to watch the replay of Monday’s loss to Nigeria. Rookie guard Jade Melbourne confirmed it wasn’t “pretty” viewing, but necessary for the Aussies to take a hard look at themselves in the mirror.
The Opals conceded a whopping 26 turnovers against the Nigerians, including a remarkable 10 turnovers in just 14 minutes.
Australia also struggled from the free throw line, shooting just 8-18 from the penalty stripe.
Melbourne knows this can’t happen again against Canada if the Opals have aspirations of reaching the podium in Paris.
“We know we can beat anyone in this competition, so we’ll regroup and we’ll come out firing against Canada,” a frustrated Melbourne said.
“We know we have to come out on the front foot in every game in this tournament,”
“We got caught off guard and we didn’t handle their (Nigeria’s) pressure very well.
“We’re a sisterhood, we’ll lift our heads and we’ll be ready to go.”
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