Melanie Cathie from Australia is one of the IFF Athletes Commission players that are going to play in the upcoming World Championships in Västerås. For Cathie (previously named Quinn) this will be the 4th World Championships.
Cathie started playing Floorball in 1999, when a group from her field hockey club obtained some sticks and balls from friends in Victoria and was mostly playing just for fun until the WFC 2003.
– Since then it has been my number 1 sport. I can´t get enough of it!
How have you prepared for WFC 2009?
– Most of my preparation has been with the team members that are based in Western Australia. We have team members on the east coast that we have had a couple of training camps with and we are yet to join our overseas team mates. We all come together for our training camp in Finland approximately 2 weeks before WFC. It has been a long and fun journey as we are a very close team, they are some of my best friends!
Team Australia will play in group C in the WFC B-division together with Singapore, Netherlands, Italy and Slovakia and the goal of the team is to play to the best of their ability and avoiding mistakes from previous years.
– Our team has made the mistake of underestimating teams at WFC before and we won´t make that mistake again. All teams are strong opponents.
– I think the strength in our team comes from our depth in ability. We do not have stand out players in our team so I would advising to watch out for all of us!
What is your best Floorball memory so far?
– Winning the Australian Floorball Open in 2005 with the first all Western Australian women´s team to play in the tournament. I think it was mostly because we didn´t expect to win as many of our team were new to the game and we have all become good friends and even Australian team mates.
Cathie is very pleased with the development of Floorball in Australia during the past years.
– It has certainly come a long way from being played in a few school halls across the country, to now being recognised by the Australian Sports Commission and being included in many school programs. We certainly have a lot more juniors playing now, we are still working to keep junior development going to then build stronger senior competitions and national teams and keep the number of people playing floorball increasing!
More IFF Athletes Commission interviews will be published soon!
The IFF Athletes Commission was established in 2008 in order to utilize the players´ experience and knowledge in developing Floorball and the IFF Regulations. IFF Athletes Commission members are found here.
