AN Olympic gold medal remains top of Tim Deavin’s bucket list despite the disappointment of missing out on Australia’s Commonwealth Games triumph.
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The 30-year-old bronze medallist from the 2012 Olympics in London said the Rio de Janeiro Games in two years time are still his primary objective.
‘‘That’s definitely my goal,’’ he said. ‘‘My body’s good, I’m still fit, healthy and playing really well at the minute, so fingers crossed I can keep improving.
‘‘We’ll take it tournament by tournament and our next major is Champions Trophy at the end of the year. Because we’ll have a new coach we don’t know what he’s going to do player-wise, so we’ve got a big camp before then in November.
‘‘I’ll try and get back into the squad initially and take it from there — Champions Trophy and another bunch of tournaments leading into Rio.’’
Deavin helped Australia win its third World Cup in the Netherlands earlier this year but was one of just a handful of players who were then cut for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, which the Kookaburras also won at a canter.
The Tamar Churinga defender said a decision had been made to blood new players in Scotland and definitely had nothing to do with his much-Tweeted canoe goal celebration when he scored in the World Cup.
‘‘I got in a bit of strife for that but it was all good after we won, thankfully,’’ he said.
‘‘It was pretty amazing playing in the World Cup, one of my career highlights, as that and Olympics are the two strongest competitions, and to win was fantastic.
‘‘The competition in the Com Games is pretty weak so in essence they took a young team to give them more games leading into the Olympics. Normally they take the top eight and after that it’s a free-for-all and they just took a young team basically.
‘‘I got good reports from the World Cup and was in the top 20 there. I know I’m not in the top eight but fingers crossed I keep in the squad for this year and keep pressing a claim.
‘‘The quality of our depth is that pretty much anyone in our 30 could play and it would not make much of a difference to the team on the day.’’
A two-time Champions Trophy winner, Deavin was making a return visit to his old school, Scotch Oakburn, which he attended from Grade 4 to 12, before graduating in 1992.
In a powerful message to the school assembly, he told students how hard work is more valuable than natural talent.
‘‘As a youngster I had a bit of natural talent but I was a little bit arrogant and didn’t work really hard and I had some friends who weren’t quite as naturally gifted but worked super hard and overtook me and ended up taking my places in teams. And that really opened my eyes.
‘‘Since then I’ve been working super hard to try and get into the Australian team and it was not until I was 26 that I did, which is quite late but shows if you want to achieve something there is no real time frame.
‘‘So don’t be discouraged if you’re not in the first team or getting top scores, it’s all about how hard you’re working. Your potential and future growth is always untapped and all up to you guys.’’