KEY POINTS:
Winning Qualification for the Beijing Olympics is the easy part for the New Zealand women's basketball side, convincing the Olympic Committee they deserve to be there may be a little harder.
The Tall Ferns line up against Australia and Fiji in the Oceania Championships in Dunedin this week, which double as Olympic qualifiers.
But with Australia having already qualified for the Olympics as world champions, New Zealand need only beat Fiji to book a place in Beijing. It's then up to the NZOC to decide if they fill it.
Small forward Aneka Kerr certainly hopes they can be convinced. She's been through a lot just to get back on the court after a second reconstruction on her left knee and the lure of a second Olympic Games was a major reason why she decided not to give the game away.
The other was the establishment of the Christchurch Sirens, which will tip off their Australian Women's Basketball League campaign against Townsville on October 5.
"It knocks you for six," Kerr admitted of a second major injury. "When something like that happens once, you just get up and get on with it but when the same thing happens again it knocks you around a bit.
"I'm happy to be back and would much rather finish [my career] on a better note that what it would have been."
With a relatively inexperienced squad, coach Mike McHugh had little hesitation including Kerr in the side, despite the fact she hasn't played since collapsing on the court last November.
With Donna Wilkins unavailable this week, Kerr is one of only three survivors from the Athens Olympics team that progressed through to the quarter-finals. The 26-year-old also helped New Zealand win silver at the Commonwealth Games two years later.
Australia is sending a largely development side to Dunedin, with only two members of the world championship winning team. It gives the Tall Ferns an outside hope of their first win against the Opals - the closest they have finished was an eight-point loss in 2005.
That match is on Wednesday before the Tall Ferns take on Fiji on Friday.
"I don't know anything about Fiji," Kerr admitted. "But going from some of the other sports they play, they have some big and athletic girls. Most people would say we only have to turn up to win but you can never be too sure."
