35-man squad named as Australian Men’s Box program continues march towards Utica redemption

The Australian Men’s Box squad has moved one step closer to Utica, with Head Coach Adam Smith announcing a reduced roster of 35 players heading into next month’s Australian National Championship.

With the Nationals a month away and the final selection camp due up in March, the Australian squad was reduced to 35 players with the vastly improved domestic competition starting to pay dividends to Australia’s international program, “the team is looking great so far, the boys are working hard and are responding well to any new direction” said Head Coach Adam Smith, “we’ve begun with a much stronger base then in 2019 primarily due to the tremendous improvement of box lacrosse in Australia over the past few years and we’re all very excited to see the squad come together”.

The trimmed down squad boasts some players from a wide and diverse range with Victoria still the best represented with 16 players. South Australia has produced 7 squad members, Western Australia 5 whilst Ryan Landels from New South Wales also made the squad. These domestic players are in addition to the 6 overseas based players still in contention.

“One of Australia’s strengths at the world level is to have very balanced and athletic players, our athletes come to camp with a strong work ethic and good fundamental lacrosse skills”, said Smith, “as coaches, we came in looking to identify those who are working hard and once we settled on what we want the identity of this team to be we were able to start to look at each players individual strengths to see where they would be the best fit and as a result, we’re excited to invite the top players in each position back to our main selection camp to continue the process”.

One of Australia’s strengths at the world level is to have very balanced and athletic players, our athletes come to camp with a strong work ethic and good fundamental lacrosse skills - Australian Men’s Head Coach Adam Smith

The squad will now focus on Nationals and will start building before the big squad calls are made in March, “now the real work begins, especially fitness, there’s a lot to learn for us to land in Utica as a cohesive unit and that is hard to do if fitness is an issue at all” said Smith, “I expect all of our athletes to leave no stone unturned to ensure that they are prepared both physically and mentally to be at their best on the world stage.”

I’m not happy with our current ranking, I don’t think anyone is, it doesn’t feel justified and it certainly isn’t indicative of our team - Australian Men’s Head Coach Adam Smith

In commencing that preparation, Smith was in no doubt as to the motivation levels of the squad and staff, “I’m not happy with our current ranking, I don’t think anyone is, it doesn’t feel justified and it certainly isn’t indicative of our team or our tournament preparation in 2019” said Smith, “we’ll be doing everything we can to ensure that we come back in a much better position this time”.

The Lacrosse Australia Mens & Women’s Box Nationals will be held at the Altona Lacrosse Club in Melbourne, Australia from 21 – 25 February 2024.