Dodd was selected after impressing for NSW Country at the Australian Country Championships in Rockhampton earlier this year, with fellow Border export Taylor Miller in the men’s squad for the event.

Both Australian Country sides enter the tournament in Bangkok as defending champions, but will face tough competition against teams from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the host nation this year.

“I think we’re in with a reasonable shot of doing fairly well again,” Dodd said.

“I’ve played in Singapore and Hawaii before, but probably the standard of this Thailand one is the best.

“It’s quite a few months from when the team is selected to actually going away, so there’s a fair bit of training on your own involved and training over winter, which is a bit more difficult.

“It’s nice to finally get the opportunity to go away after we’ve been waiting a few months.

“I’m over there for nine days, there’s a couple of days of training when we arrive and the actual tournament starts on Thursday and finishes on the Sunday.

“We play around two games a day and finals.”

Dodd enjoys the high-intensity environment the tournament provides and the different playing styles of each nation.

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“It’s always good playing with people at that higher skill level and we’ve got a new coach this year, so it will be interesting to see what I can learn off her as well,” Dodd said.

“It’s great to play in a tournament like that, it’s really high-intensity and the Asian teams are very quick.

“We’re probably a bit bigger than the other teams, so our game is a bit more physical.

“They’re very quick, but smaller, so that’s probably the main difference.

“It will be a good test, but you don’t really know who you’re coming up against until you actually see them.

“You’ve got to prepare for the unexpected, it involved us doing a lot of swimming and getting as fit as we can before go.

“When we get there, everyone needs to be working together as a team because we haven’t played together before.”

Adjusting to the conditions is another major factor for the visiting teams from Australia.

“It’s very hot over there, it’s between 80 and 90 per cent humidity,” Dodd added.

“The pools are very hot as well, so getting used to that temperature and the humidity is probably the hardest thing.”

Dodd flies out to Thailand on Sunday.