WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL C - AUSTRALIA VS CZECHIA

March 6, 2026

David Nilsson

Tokyo Dome

Team Australia

Postgame Press Conference

Australia 5, Czech Republic 1

Q. Just want to ask you what you felt about today's game, how you felt the players reacted, and what are your plans for tomorrow? Are you going to let them relax or have a little bit of a workout as you get ready for the rest of the tournament?

DAVID NILSSON: Yeah, I was really leisured with the guys effort today. I think you have to give a bit of credit to the opposition. They executed some good pitches and really kept our batters off-balance. Credit to them.

Our guys turned up. They were really motivated, really gave a good effort. Really pleased with the outcome. Par as far as tomorrow goes, we'll probably have a really light workout, nothing too intense. Just gauge where their bodies are at right now.

Q. A colleague of mine in Australia called me and said you've qualified. Is that your understanding with the two victories, is that enough to be in?

DAVID NILSSON: No, that's not enough. You have to look at the other teams' performances. We still have two games to play. We have to try to win. I'm sure there may be a scenario where if this team loses and that team, all that sort of stuff.

But we have to win three games as far as we're concerned.

Q. How much has the long ball been an advantage for you in this WBC?

DAVID NILSSON: We have a lot of different offensive players that have the ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark, and we've displayed that over the last few WBCs.

And our program continues to get better and the athletes continue to get better, continue to get stronger. Right now they are putting good swings on the ball and taking advantage of some of the pitches up in the zone. Really pleased. Obviously they are getting their rewards.

Q. What is your game plan for Team Japan? What changes will you make and how do you feel about it?

DAVID NILSSON: Yeah, again, the plan tomorrow has nothing to do about Team Japan. The plan tomorrow is all about us and just making sure our bodies are right, and whatever schoolwork or whatever we need to work on tomorrow, we'll do that.

Once the workout is over, we'll watch the games and wake up the next day and then we'll start focusing on Team Japan, obviously the best team in the world, and we have a lot of information about them. Our players are really excited to go up against them and see where we're at.

Q. This is Curtis Mead's first tournament, and his father was an ABL player. Curious what your relationship is with the family and how long you've known Tim or Curtis and your reaction to his home run today.

DAVID NILSSON: Yeah, I think I played against the dad in the ABL from what I recall, it was a long time ago. But I think we had some sort of crossover there. A few years back, had some time speaking with the Mead family about Curtis's future, and that's really about it. And since then, it's mainly been myself and Curtis.

And as far as how I felt when he hit the home one I was really excited for him. All my guys, whenever someone has a home run, whenever somebody has a big hit, it's rewarding for the players, but also for the coaches and the manager because you see the work they put in, and you want to see your players get rewarded for that work. So I'm really pleased for Curtis.

Q. What do you think you need to improve to win this WBC?

DAVID NILSSON: You're always looking to improve. I think we are just going to keep doing what we do and how we do it and we'll just keep preparing. We're not going to do anything different. We prepared the best we can, so we'll just continue doing that and whether it's Team Japan or Czech, we focus on our preparation, so there's nothing new over the next 24 to 36 hours.

Q. You have a huge cheering crowd on the first base side. How did you feel about the energetic voices you met in Fuchu?

DAVID NILSSON: We spoke about it before, our team is really excited with the Fuchu relationship we have and to see the kids out there. I know a lot of our players were out there earlier and waving to the kids. Another reminder of the impact we have with not just Australian kids but local Japanese kids, and really pleased to get a win for them today.