The 52-year-old former NBL player, who led Australia's men to a gold medal win at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games, will be putting the 16-strong squad through their paces with a solid on-court training session next week in Victoria's Dandenong and Ballarat before selecting his final team to take on the New Zealand Tall Ferns in the two-game series FIBA Qualifier on August 14-18.

The squad, which is headlined by London 2012 Olympians and Opals veterans Lauren Jackson, Belinda Snell, Jenni Screen and Laura Hodges will also meet for friendly matches with the Dandenong Rangers and Ballarat's Youth League men's team, in what is the team's third training camp of the year so far under Joyce.

"Put simply, we're getting down to business now," Joyce said.

"Our first two camps this year were about establishing cohesion and a style of play across a large pool of athletes, as well as entrenching those core values of what it means to be a Jayco Australian Opal.

"Those camps opened up the opportunities for a broader number of players to take part in the Opals training environment, and that has in turn created a real depth of players from which to select our final FIBA Qualifier squad."

Australian Opals coach Brendan Joyce said the team "is getting down to business"

With only one place up for grabs in the Oceania qualifier for women, the Australian's - currently ranked number two in the FIBA rankings - must win the two-test event to go through.

Joyce, a former Ballarat Miners coach who was appointed to his current role in May, had previously been assistant coach of the men's team at the Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Olympics and 2006 FIBA World Championships, as well as the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

"I'm confident that ahead of the FIBA Qualifier we'll be able to put together an exciting complement of elite international experience, rising stars starting to hit their strides and emerging talent to watch," explained Joyce.

Australia's women team must win the two-test event to qualify for the 2013 FIBA Oceania Championships

Joyce also confirmed the support staff heading to the championships with him, with Australian Emus under 19 men's head coach Damian Cotter being appointed as assistant coach, Lor Chizik the first female coach in the NBL agreeing to stay on until after the tournament and Basketball Queensland's high performance manager for North Queensland, Scott Butler as technical assistant coach.

Auckland will play host to the first of the two-game series on August 14, followed by the second match at Canberra's AIS Arena on August 18.

Australia go into the competition as the favourite nation with 17 titles to New Zealand's three.

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