Quirky insight: Women's sevens series can't start soon enough

Off-season – big tick, pre-season – tick, new boots – tick, new yellow and green undies – tick ... and I'm ready for Dubai! 

This 2015-16 season could not have come any sooner. If I have to push one more prowler or do one more burpee in the name of pre-season … My gosh, I just can't even! Give me a footy and let me tackle someone already – although preferably not Ellia Green!

This sevens season is going to be epic and I just can’t wait. 

In the lead up to the new sevens season, our preparations at Aussie Sevens’ headquarters have been tough and I’m clearly a little scarred, but you can’t improve on last season’s performances and aim for bigger and better things this season if you don’t do the work. 

And that’s exactly what the Aussie girls have done, with a little whinging, sweat and tears along the way. Wouldn't you complain too, running around in 41-degree heat and lifting in a gym with a broken air conditioner? As if I didn’t get sweaty enough! 

Lucky we love the hard work and live only 200m away from the best beaches in the world – not rubbing that in at all! All of the running, burpees and sweatiness are totally worth it when you take that first step onto the pitch on day one.  

If we cast our thoughts back to last season we had a bit of a mid-season wobble, losing form in Atlanta and Canada, so our main goal this year is consistency. 

We are aiming to come in red hot in Dubai, letting our processes take care of our performance. We then want to continue to build momentum, for peak performance in Rio. 

Throughout our series we had to learn how to bounce back after some disappointing results, with the girls coming together strongly in the last two legs of the series. Under pressure the girls put together some solid performances to qualify for the Olympics. A well-deserved outcome if you ask me. 

Fast forward six months to Dubai ... and I can't wait till we come back from our first warm-up on day one, pull our jerseys on, huddle up and blast our team song throughout the change room, singing along proudly with my best friends. There aren't too many better feelings. 

Our pool with Spain, Japan and England will be tough, which pool isn't though? And the new format for finals day will be even tougher. The Poms love a short line (lots of tackling, hello shoulders), the Japanese are fast and agile around the ruck (lots of running, hello legs) and the Spanish love to do both (hello shoulders and legs). 

But as the old cliché goes “you have got to beat them all to be the best”. Something we train and aspire to be every opportunity we get. 

Our team for Dubai will consist of some old dogs from the last World Series, hopefully with some new tricks up their sleeves. Charlotte Caslick and Emilee Cherry will be back to their dominant attacking brilliance, the bash brothers Sharni Williams and Shannon Parry, along with Amy Turner, will be keen to hit or bump anyone who gets in their way, Chloe Dalton has two useful arms again and Evania Pelite is on fire coming off an MVP performance at the Central Coast Sevens tournament. 

The whole team though is looking forward to being strapped up like mummies, consuming litres of Gatorade, completing 300 warm-ups, putting in their crusty mouth guards they forgot to wash after Amsterdam, a large amount of high fives and bum taps and all in all playing a bit of footy with their mates. 

Overall our lead up to Dubai has been really positive and fun but for all teams involved it has been cast with a little bit of a shadow with the announcement of only four legs on the Women's World Series for 2015-16. 

Now as much as I will miss accruing more Qantas Frequent Flyer points, it really is a step back after two big steps forward last season. It is a shame to get left behind with the world about to see sevens take a giant leap forward with the Rio 2016 Olympics. 

The disappointment comes because we just love to play footy, and we love to play even more in cool places in front of thousands of fans. The Women’s Sevens Series has come so far and everyone just wants to see it continue to grow and escape the notion of “classic women's sport”. 

Hopefully we will see a fifth leg added soon, but nonetheless the Aussie gals will be ready to rumble in the desert on Thursday and Friday, taking every opportunity we get to showcase our skill set, our pre-season work and most importantly our fresh summer tans/sunburns (Gemma Etheridge). 

The actual most important thing is the opportunity the World Series gives us as female rugby players to constantly match ourselves against the best in the world. Bring it on! 

This is the first in a regular monthly column with Alicia Quirk, who will take us behind the scenes and give us an insight into the life of a sevens player as the countdown to Rio 2016 continues.