Yes is 50 games and over 5 years, since the Ferns last played OFC opposition. That is partly due to Covid & of course the Ferns getting automatic entry to last years WWC. So yeah completely wrong to suggest by being in OFC the Ferns don't get to play plenty of higher ranked teams.
Whether is Olympics or WWC qualifying it's only a 2 week tourney, that takes up just 1 window (when played in a window!). And with the piss easy cakewalk it is, then the Ferns get the regular tough pool games biennially, at either an Olympics & WWC that The Prof craves to see. Anyway the leaving for Asia debate has been done to death.
Still I'm sure true elite athletes like Zoe Hobbs or Eddie Osei-Nketia, would love to just have to be the fastest person in Oceania (sans Australia) to make an Olympics!
Whether is Olympics or WWC qualifying it's only a 2 week tourney, that takes up just 1 window (when played in a window!). And with the piss easy cakewalk it is, then the Ferns get the regular tough pool games biennially, at either an Olympics & WWC that The Prof craves to see. Anyway the leaving for Asia debate has been done to death.
Still I'm sure true elite athletes like Zoe Hobbs or Eddie Osei-Nketia, would love to just have to be the fastest person in Oceania (sans Australia) to make an Olympics!
Don't get me started on those two, they may well be the fastest in Oceania, and may well make it out of their heat at the Olympics, but they are still a fair way off making the final let alone medalling. But lets spend the money on them anyway and bump someone else out of the team that may have a chance of medalling so they can say they've been to an Olympics.
The fixation on medalling is the issue. Being one of the 20-30 fastest people on planet earth, in a blue ribbon Olympics event basically available to every living human - the ability to run very fast - makes you an elite athlete. The ability to ride a horse very well, open to a tiny slice of our population, not so much.