Pride and passion will be on display in New Zealand on Thursday, as 24 of Australia's top table tennis veterans face off against the Kiwis.
The Sunshine Coast has three players in the squad, in three separate age groups.
Paul Green, Alan Bruhn and Ken Hay have decades of national and international competition experience between them.
All three said it was an honour to get the call up to represent their country.
"I had a tear in my eye when I was selected, so it means a lot to me," Green said.
"I've been playing a long time and it's nice to be recognised."
Green comes from a table tennis family, with his brother Colin Green a regular representative for Scotland.
"My mum and dad played table tennis in the 60s and I started in about '67 ... my grandfather built me a table," he said.
Bruhn also started as a teenager, playing on a homemade table at his Mount Gambier home.
He represented the Northern Territory before moving to Queensland.
The 76-year-old is keen to put on a good show in Nelson, on New Zealand's South Island.
"New Zealand and Australia are always rivals so that's going to be good," Bruhn said.
"There's still some pretty fit guys at that age [over 75s category] and can still hit the ball pretty well, so it's good competition."
Staying active
At 81, Ken Hay is the eldest of the Sunshine Coast trio and the second-most senior member of the Australian squad.
He started playing at 15 and hasn't stopped.
Over the decades he has picked up a few tricks to outsmart and outplay his opponents.
"You need to be fairly fit ... you need to be able to move your feet well," Hay said.
"The best way is to catch them out in the serves so if you're cross-eyed that helps ... you can look one way then serve the other way and a lot of the time that comes off."
He credited the sport for improving both his mental and physical health.
"It keeps the heart ticking ... it's just a fantastic sport that anybody can play," Hay said.
"If you want to live long, play ping-pong"
Olympic hopes
The trio hope to cheer on the younger generation of tennis table players on home soil, at the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Table Tennis Australia chief executive Scott Houston said the "current crop" of juniors were holding their own on the global stage.
"Our top junior boy Nicholas Lum actually reached number one in the world for under seven teams last year," Mr Houston said.
"At the World Junior Championships last year, in Tunisia, we brought home one silver and one bronze medal.
"In nine years' time they'll probably be getting close to their prime and well-placed to try and have some medals for Australia at the 2032 Olympics."
He said the sport was "underfunded relative to other comparable sports".
"For our Olympic team ... we don't receive any high-performance funding from the Australian government ... we are making a push and a case to try to have some funding reinstated," Mr Houston said.
He said there were 250 clubs across Australia, with 10,400 registered members which exceeded the pre-Covid level.
"It is a sport that is growing and it's one of the most accessible sports," Mr Houston said.
"The youngest age group we have available is under elevens ... and the oldest age group is over 85 ... I don't think there would be many other sports that have that age range."
