The Australian men's basketball captain Matt Nielsen has declared his third Olympic Games campaign will definitely be his last as he prepares to lead the Boomers against New Zealand in the battle for a ticket to London.
The Oceania championship best-of-three series this week will decide whether Australia or New Zealand qualify automatically for next year's Olympics, or have to go the hard way via a tricky worldwide repechage tournament.
For Nielsen, an unsung mainstay of the Boomers set-up for a decade, game one in Melbourne on Wednesday night will mark the start of the end of an era.
The 33-year-old forward will bow out of international basketball after this Games campaign - and desperately hopes it will be after London rather than any time before.
Shorn of two of its best players - Andrew Bogut and David Andersen - for the series against the Tall Blacks, Nielsen is confident what lies beneath will prove itself against a Tall Blacks side led by superstar shooting guard Kirk Penney.
