Marena Whittle remembers the moment Australia's dreams of winning their first Commonwealth Games 3x3 basketball gold medal imploded.
It was the semi-final of the 2022 Birmingham Games, where the Gangurrus were expected to charge into the gold medal match.
"I just remember that game so vividly because obviously we're in England, we're playing against England, we've got the whole English crowd around us," she told AAP.
"We just made so many little mistakes.
"I just hated that feeling, and it stuck with me ... We're eager to avenge that game in particular because I don't think that we played to our best."
A 21-15 loss meant the side ended up settling for bronze, and Whittle admits the Australians came into the competition too caught up in the moment.
But in 2026, they're entering the Glasgow Games focused on continuing their glittering success, which was punctuated by a shock World Cup silver medal.
"Instead of feeling like the favourites, we just know our standard is very high and where we want to play, and we've been playing up to that all year," Whittle said.
"If we can fall back to our standards that are already so high, I'm confident that we'll be medalling."
Australia is the only team to have competed in June's World Cup to feature in the Commonwealth Games after Canada failed to qualify.
But regardless of the competition missing the 2022 gold medallists, Whittle knows it won't be smooth sailing for the Australians.
"Australia, England, New Zealand, we all play quite similar styles," she said.
'But when we come up against some of these other Commonwealth countries, they play very different, very diverse styles that we're not used to."
The Gangurrus enter the Games having played in six competitions in the lead-up.
Whittle's teammate Amy Atwell believes that the pre-Glasgow fixtures will prove the difference in their medal hopes.
"It was really that China game (in the World Cup) where, in my head, it kind of clicked," Atwell told AAP.
"That was the moment for me that I was like, OK, like, let's go give this thing a red hot crack.
"Especially a new group playing together, the more games we could play together, the better it was going to be for us."
Australia is one of only three countries to bring all four of the men, women, wheelchair men and wheelchair women's teams to the Games, which get underway on July 24.
