Women’s sevens coach Tim Walsh films documentary tracking the teams’ journey to Rio gold and beyond
A year after they made history by winning an Olympic gold medal, Australian womens sevens coach Tim Walsh says it’s time for his squad to let go of Rio.
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A year after they made history by winning an Olympic gold medal, Australian womens sevens coach Tim Walsh says it’s time for his squad to let go of Rio and focus on re-climbing the mountain in 2018.
Walsh reflected on the achievement of his team in Rio yesterday as the year-mark ticked by since the Aussie girls claimed victory over New Zealand and stepped onto the dais to receive gold medals.
But the subsequent year hasn’t been nearly as joyous, with the Australian team relinquishing their World Series crown and world no. 1 ranking to archrivals New Zealand.
As witnessed in their struggle to deal with massive expectations in Sydney, the Aussie girls didn’t win a single leg of the 2016 World Series. The Kiwis dominated with five wins from six tournaments.
Australia’s consistency saw them finish second overall, however, after three second places and two thirds.
“We were certainly wary of a year like that I guess,” Walsh said.
“We put everything into peaking for 2016 and you always want to get better, but you can’t just continually stay at that intensity. So we were wary that it would be hard mentally to keep everybody on point and the fact we’d focused down on the same group of 14 for a while leading into the Games, there would be depth issues if we did lose a few.
“We will enjoy Rio for the rest of our lives but we have to let it go. And if we are going to have a bad year, now was the year to have it. Having said that, if a bad year is finishing second in the world, we are still in a good position for next year and it only gives us that hunger leading into the World Series, the Comm Games and the World Cup next year.”
Reflecting on the road to Rio — and the challenging follow-up year — has been a bit easier for Walsh than most coaches given he has juggled a second role the whole time: documentary maker.
From the first days in 2012, Walsh filmed hundreds of hours of behind-the-scenes footage and he cut it into a 40-minute film to use as motivation before Rio.
Combined with professional filming during the last year, the material has been turned into a six-part documentary series on the Aussie women’s sevens team called “Hold Back the River”.
“Five years ago I started to film and interview the girls to promote the game, basically being a travelling media guy as well,” Walsh said.
“But in my first tournament as head coach, I filmed the week and before the game we did this pump-up video of training and all that. And we went out and won it. So from then on, it was like let’s do this.
“A month later I thought I am actually going to start documenting this and make a video called Road to Rio.”
Walsh, who lists filmmaking as a sideline hobby, said he’d interview players at tournaments and also get them to do video diaries away from training.
He kept making pump-up videos for the girls before tournaments but he also had bigger plans.
“When we took off to Rio I wanted to piece it all together and make a presentation of all our years together,” he said.
“So when I announced the team I played this documentary I’d basically made myself around our journey.
“Then the gold medal happened like we planned and I pitched it to the ARU, saying “hey I have this material and this DOCS rom the last four years” and it took on a bit of life.”
Using Walsh footage as inserts, the documentary is anchored around the Australian women’s team’s Sydney tournament and the months thereafter.
“We chose Sydney for obvious reasons and from my point of view it wasn’t the best I guess, because it was the worst tournament we’d had in two-and-a-half years,” Walsh said.
“But I guess from a viewing point of view it had all the emotion and ups and downs, and the whole thing works well. It’s not just about Rio, it is about where this sport is going and how everyone is dealing with those challenges and that growth.
“It’s a great chance to look back but also about what we’ve learned and how we will move forward bigger and better.”
Originally published as Women’s sevens coach Tim Walsh films documentary tracking the teams’ journey to Rio gold and beyond
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