PLAYING at an Olympics is a lifelong ambition, but the next 11 days will have a major say in whether that dream becomes reality next year for Wagga hockey gun Dylan Martin.
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The 22-year-old has spent the past fortnight isolating at an Airbnb in Perth with three other players before competing in a cutthroat camp featuring Australia's best players, after which 27 will be chosen for next year's Kookaburras.
The 16-player line-up to compete at Tokyo will then be selected from that squad, which means making a strong impression in WA is critical for Martin.
The camp will feature four intra-squad matches played at international level intensity, giving coaches a chance to assess players' form which hasn't been possible with COVID-19 forcing games to be postponed.
Martin feels he wouldn't make the cut if the squad was picked today, but hopes to impress enough at the camp to push his way up the pecking order.
"We're in isolation but we've been given some special exemption to do some training while I'm here, about 60-90 minutes a day to get out which keeps us sane," he said.
"It gives me some time to finish off some uni work as well.
"In the games I just want to go out there and play. It's pretty cutthroat in the nature of how the process is, someone could have an off week. But that's part of it, it's about putting good performances in when it matters.
"The selection process isn't over a long time because it can't be like that. There's probably not a lot of pressure on someone like myself, so I'll just go out there and play."
Martin believes the delaying of the Olympics by a year has aided his chances of making the cut, but knows he'll have other chances in the future should he be unsuccessful.
"Personally I think I've grown a lot as a player over the last year, and I'm still young," he said.
"I'm very keen to see what I can do over the next few days."
Kookaburras head coach Colin Batch said the camp was crucial to give coaching staff an indication of how players are travelling before an Olympic year.
"The camp has come about because of COVID and the lack of training and matches we have had, so this is a great opportunity to have the best players in Australia playing against each other in a high level series of matches," he said.
"It allows us to see who has grown during the year, who has developed and who may have stagnated, which is why we are using this to select the national squad for next year."
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