Australia has produced a plucky run through the second pool stages of the Asian Cup to advance to the Semi finals against dominant Asian team, China.
The Aussie unit has had a terrific run in Season 55, dropping just two competitive games so far, both against sides ranked in the low teens of the World rankings.
It's been a different looking unit at times this season but thanks to some great support from the Aussie managers on the home front our solid and steady game shape has allowed us to play a competitive brand of ball all season.
Making the semis is our best result in an Asian Cup since we made a final in season 47 and only the second time we've made a semi final since the end of Season 43.
To put that in context, the last time we played in an Asian Semi Final was the season aging centre Homer Dawes first established himself in the side and the debut National season for veteran guard Du Hongjing, who had the pleasure of playing in that semi in front of almost 24,000 fans on his home court, The Kennel.
While both veterans are no longer the mainstays of the unit these days both have at times played really important parts in our current run.
Hongjing brought up his own little piece of history in our last game, becoming the second player in Australian history to deliver 500 assists for the National side. After 118 games he currently sits second on the all time tally behind the legendary Jackson Mansfield, who back in the early days of the game dished out 507 assists across 132 games. With some fantastic guards pushing up in the depth charts Hongjing may be running out of opportunities to throw those extra three dishes to equal the record.
Having recently slipped back to the third ranking in the World after leading the table for a number of seasons, China will no doubt be raging favourites in this game, but team captain Dawes said he and his the Aussie teammates will be doing their best to leave no stone unturned in their attempt to stretch their season one more game and earn automatic qualification to the World Cup.
"There are a couple of us that are closer to the end than the beginning, to be frank, but no matter the role we play, be that smashing in hard in the paint or waving our towels like crazy on the bench, we're planning on making sure the world knows we came to play," the renowned hard man said.
"The new breed coming through, the Houghton's and Duffield's, "Brewski" Laga, even Chicky and Dey, they're the future but we want to make sure we show them what it means to represent your country on the big stage and play with some heart."

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Australia advance to Semi Finals!