Aussie Rule spikes youth teams
-"The best they can finish is fifth even if they win all their games," Volleyball Hawke's Bay development officer Kath Samia said of the New Zealand contingent, comprising under-17 to under-19 teams.
It's just not volleyball.
In fact, it defies everything sport when you come to think of it.
It's tantamount to guests arriving for dinner but on ringing the doorbell the hosts inform them they have to skip the dessert and liqueur.
That's how Hawke's Bay's New Zealand junior men's volleyballers would have felt when they boarded their flight for Brisbane yesterday afternoon to compete in the Australian State Championship in Beenleigh.
The tiredness from travelling, the Queensland humidity and lugging their baggage and gear would have paled in comparison to the weight they felt in their hearts.
"The best they can finish is fifth even if they win all their games," Volleyball Hawke's Bay development officer Kath Samia said of the New Zealand contingent, comprising under-17 to under-19 teams.
The under-17 team - including Napier Boys' High School pair of Eli Martin and Fabien Simmen, and Taradale High School's Mitchell Barnett - discovered in the umpteenth hour from Volleyball Australia they would not receive medals if they make it on the dais in the top three position.
Samia's husband, Alani, is the coach of the under-17 side and in charge overall of the Kiwi contingent. He was expecting to hold discussions with Volleyball Australia in the next few days to see if the hosts would change their stance.
In a statement, Volleyball NZ revealed they knew their Aussie counterparts were in the throes of amending the state tournament on June 23 to exclude international sides from medal matches.
The Australian board endorsed the amendment after rigorous debate and confirmed on June 25, via email, that international sides "will be eligible to move into the championship pool based on results but will not be eligible to play the medal matches".
"With an investment of over $80,000 to attend the state championship event, the New Zealand teams were left short on time to reconsider their participation," it said.
The same stance would be adopted for the Australian Junior Beach Championship in 2010, thus preventing the Kiwis from defending their podium finishes achieved early this year.
Kath Samia said the problem in the state champs first surfaced last year when the under-17 boys' and girls' teams finished in third place but during the prizegiving ceremony were bypassed and the bronze medals handed to the fourth-placed state side who had lost to them.
"Our players were stunned," she said, adding the organisers a few weeks later posted a dozen medals to Volleyball NZ to hand out to the Kiwis.
"You can imagine how the players came back to Auckland Airport and their mums and dads were there but no medals around their necks."
She agreed the trophy for the winners should be awarded to the best Australian state sides but, as the New Zealand Secondary Schools annual tournament organisers do, let the teams compete for medals.
It seemed, Samia said, the Australians were under pressure for funding from their government after a structured system that enabled state players to apply for institute scholarships to pursue for Olympic glory.
The Australians, ranked eighth in the world, had failed to make the cut for the Beijing Olympics last year.
Nevertheless, she thought it was laughable to juxtapose the state sides with the national ones in terms of population.
"Over four million live in Brisbane, let alone Queensland, compared with New Zealand," she said, claiming all the states, bar Tasmania, were bigger than New Zealand.
For now, it appears the Kiwis are in a lose-lose situation.
Even if they had ample notice to withdraw, pulling the plug would deprive the youngsters of valuable experience and opportunity to gauge their skills.
