The door is still open for new faces to join the Aussie women’s Olympic campaign, coach John Manenti says.
While the core of the team will still include a number of stars from the Rio campaign, Manenti said they had far from settled on the group that would touch down in Tokyo in September 2020.
The Aussies finished fourth overall in the World Series and blooded a host of new talent in the competition, amid an inconsistent season.
Most of the team's current stars started out in other sports and Manenti said they wouldn't close the door on bringing in some fresh blood, either off the back of the upcoming Aon Uni 7s series or from other sports.
“There's still a strong group of players that were there from the last Olympics but I think there's going to be a lot of competition and I was just talking this morning saying how hard it's going to get and that's before we look outside the current group and what we've got and what might roll thorough Aon,” he said.
“The Olympics is obviously a special opportunity so whether any other athletes want to put their hand up in the next few months and come in the picture.
“It's an exciting time and certainly I'm hoping that pressure and the competition around positions drives the girls to another level.”
There are a number of former Sevens players who are still playing top level sport in other codes and a host who could potentially make the switch.
Manenti said the squad didn’t have their eye on anyone in particular but they were keeping their options open.
“No one in particular, no, but it's obviously not every sport gets to go to the Olympics and we know we're going so if there are people that are in a transitional phase we'd be prepared to look at people if the right athletes came along,” he said.
“I'm very comfortable with the group we've got, we've got a couple of new girls coming in next season and then we'll look at comes through Aon in particular.
“That's the big window is for people to put their name in lights for us over the next few months.”
This season’s World Series campaign was the leanest for the Aussies since 2013 with no Cup titles and just two silver finishes for the season.
Manenti said while the results were disappointing for his side, it wasn’t going to derail the side heading into the Olympic season.
“We want to win everything we play so yeah it is disappointing but it's also part of where we're at and we've got to get to going forward,” he said.
“If we win every tournament now and don't win at the Olympics it's probably equally disappointing.
“We know we have to do the work, we know that success in past years doesn't guarantee success now.
“Winning doesn't take turns but we know every time we play we've got to aim up and produce the goods and we haven't done that consistently.”
Australia's women will have close to a month off with the season over before returning to training ahead of the Uni 7s and October's Colorado Sevens.
