The Qantas Joeys will depart on Wednesday 15 August to commence an Altitude Research tour in Bolivia.
The Qantas Joeys will depart on Wednesday 15 August to commence an Altitude Research tour in Bolivia.
Creating a stronger link between academic research and player development the tour to Bolivia, which is being funded by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), Victoria University and Qatar-s Aspire Academy, will give the Joeys experience in playing at altitude prior to their World Cup qualification campaign in Iran next month.
“This trip will deliver outstanding opportunities for the traveling group of 20 players and coaching staff, to be immersed in the South American football culture for three weeks will be of great benefit for everyone,” said Qantas Joeys head coach Alistair Edwards.
“It-s a first for all of the players and we will all learn a great deal from this experience to add to the contrasting football styles we have already encountered.
“We have identified specific areas of improvement from our tournaments in Laos and Saudi Arabia and to have the team together for this extended period will enable Tony (Vidmar) and I to focus on fine tuning these individual and team aspects in preparation for Iran.
“I have been a staunch advocate of Australian academia and our world renowned sport scientists to become more involved in Australian football, it-s quite significant that this expertise has for the first time targeted football for research, I hope that this is the first step of many whereby we can partner with such expertise to assist us in our quest of becoming a world leader in football as well as sport science.”
Acting AIS Director Phil Borgeaud said the AIS had a long and proud of history of supporting the development of the Australia-s elite football talent.
“This tour is a great opportunity for the Joeys to prepare for their World Cup qualification campaign but it is also a critical research tour for the AIS in the field of altitude training, particularly as to its utility for team sport preparation,” said Borgeaud.
“This partnership between the AIS, Victoria University and Aspire, along with the FFA, is crucial to giving the Australian athletes and teams the best possible support in their quest for international success.”
Qantas Joeys Bolivia Altitude Training squad 15 August - 6 September
Daniel De Silva Rocco Pizzata Liam Rose Steve Kuzmanovski Darcy Madden Matt Schmidt Andre Jannese James Baldacchino Josh MacDonald Matthew Stewart Matt Ntoumenopoulos Jordan Pudler Alex Gersbach Jack Iredale Todd Norris Jordan Thurtell Brandon Lundy Aaron Calver Lukas Stergiou Kevin Ly