Brooke Dickie, 18, and Bridget Johnston, 17, flew out of Albury to join the Australian under-18 squad on a tour of the Netherlands, Greece and Hungary.

“They’re three of the top teams in Europe so it will be a real test to see where we’re at, really, against the world,” Johnston said.

The pair also visited Europe last year with the same group.

“It was a very different style of water polo over there,” Dickie said. “A lot more physical. We really had to adjust and now we know what we’re up against. Ever since 2014 we’ve just been progressing together and improving together so it’s a really close-knit team.” 

Johnston said they appreciated having each other and a good Border competition.

“Training together makes everything so much easier,” she said.

“And we were fortunate enough to have a pretty strong age group in Albury so that got us through and got us noticed as well.”