THE Hockeyroos, featuring Mollymook's Kalindi Commerford and Gerringong's Grace Stewart, will not be leaving anything to chance as they attempt to secure their place at next year's Tokyo Olympics, when they take on Russia in a do-or-die two-match qualifying series in Perth beginning on Friday.
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The winner on aggregate across the two-matches, to be played on October 25 and 26 at the Perth Hockey Stadium, will book their spot at Tokyo 2020.
Currently ranked second in the world, the Hockeyroos find themselves in this 'last chance' qualifier after being narrowly edged out by New Zealand in last month's Oceania Cup which saw the Black Sticks Women qualify automatically.
Hockeyroos coach Paul Gaudoin says the players' focus at training since they reassembled to prepare for the qualifiers has been spot on and he is confident they will be able to handle the occasion considering what is on the line.
"If we control what we can do, do it well and stick to the game plan, I believe we'll be able to come away with some success," Gaudoin said.
"One of the things we have spoken about is the ability to play in high pressure matches."
"We took some learning from those qualifiers against New Zealand and now we have another opportunity to play in high pressure games."
"It highlights that you can't take qualifying for the Olympics for granted, particularly in the women's game.
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Up against a Russian team 19th on the world rankings, the Hockeyroos enter the qualifiers as favourites, however their opponents are largely an unknown quantity and Gaudoin knows they will pose a difficult challenge.
The last time the Hockeyroos faced Russia was at a six nations tournament in 2002.
"Russia have had some promising results against some very good teams of late, so they have obviously got some quality about them and they are a little bit more unknown so that makes it dangerous," said Gaudoin.
"But at the same time we're confident," he said.
"We've established ourselves over the last couple of years into a pretty good position globally and I back our girls to get the job done.
"We have had a look at some of Russia's matches but certainly the focus has been back on our play and what we do so that has certainly been the focus for us."
The Hockeyroos have suffered one setback in the lead up with dynamic forward Rosie Malone ruled out after injuring her hamstring at training.
Malone's spot in the team has been filled by West Australian Georgia Wilson, who herself has returned from injury and is set to make her first Hockeyroos appearance since the Ready Steady Tokyo test event in August.
