Australia selects squads for 2026 Roundnet World Championship in Paris

Australia has put a full national frame around its Paris ambition: a 10-player women’s squad, two alternates and a 10-player men’s squad, plus a June training camp and a late-August departure. The selection is about more than filling uniforms. It shows how the Australian Roundnet Association wants to define the sport at home and abroad, by skill, commitment and character, as the World Championship gets closer.

Leoni Klarner will coach the women’s side, which includes Mieka Figg, Alannah Green, Raina Lawton, Jojo Lu, Chloe Matthews, Gemma Moore, Tash Noble, Rachel Read, Nicole Riordan and Sally Walker, with Emma Grice and Shelley Ryan named as alternates. Daniel Kroh will lead the men’s group of Jack Briant, Levi Geyer, Joshua Grice, Matthew Hutchinson, Stephen James, Henry Moffitt, Murray Noble, Hugo Ragg, Joel Read and Jono Ryan. The structure matters: Australia is not sending a loose touring group, but a rostered national program with coaching assignments, backups and a clear pathway into the biggest event in the sport.

That pathway runs through a selection process built to reward more than ranking points. The association says its committee weighs national rankings, recent Australian and international results, eligibility at one of four major domestic events, conduct, recent form, character, team pairings and how a player helps grow the sport locally and nationally. The 2025/2026 Australian Tour Series, a 15-tournament circuit, feeds that system and gives selectors a live read on who can handle the standard needed for Paris. In practical terms, that means the roster reflects both current form and the kind of culture the association wants on court overseas.

The championship itself carries real weight. The International Roundnet Federation says the 2026 Roundnet World Championship will run from 2 to 6 September 2026 at Parc du Tremblay in Paris, with the event staged as part of a biennial cycle that began with the first official Worlds in Belgium in 2022. Its Worlds materials now include sections for spectators, sponsors, federations, teams and athletes, a sign of a tighter, more formal championship structure. Roundnet France says more than a dozen clubs are involved in its federation and tournament system, giving the host nation a stronger domestic base than many emerging sports can claim.

For Australia, the roster also doubles as a growth statement. The association says it is a full member of the International Roundnet Federation, wants to reach 1,000 members, and is using profits from the 2026 Roundnet Australia T-shirt to help cover squad expenses for the trip. That combination of fundraising, selection discipline and national-team branding suggests continuity in the program, but also a sharper push to contend. Australia is not just showing up in Paris. It is trying to arrive as a serious roundnet nation with the structure to stay there.