Hockey: NSW honours for local talent

The Australian Country Championships will be first up and see Armidale’s Brittany Parker, Katrina Rekunow, Tara Jane, Brianna Sutton, Darby Chalmers and Ben Hanlan, and Tamworth’s Ashley Ninness and Simon Massey donning the blue of NSW Country. 

Parker and Rekunow were part of of the women’s side that won silver last year while Massey and Hanlan helped the blues win gold and will be looking to go back to back at Berri in August.

Tamworth’s Alice Arnott, Kate Jenner, Matt Willis and Sam Liles, and Armidale’s Georgina Morgan have meanwhile been named in the NSW Arrows (women’s) and NSW Waratahs (men’s) squads for the revamped Australian Hockey League.

Rather than being played over two weeks at a central venue, the annual tournament will be spread over four weekends across October concluding with a finals weekend on the Gold Coast.

Jenner, Morgan and Willis have all been involved in previous campaigns.

Arnott, Sutton and Chalmers have also been selected in the initial 2019 under-21s squads, which along with the AHL and Country squads were finalised following the recent State Open Championships.

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Arnott and Sutton are joined in the women’s squad by Emily Chaffey (Tamworth), Tahlia Constance (Armidale), Abigail Doolan (Tamworth), Mia Emanuel (Armidale) and Chloe Hampton (Armidale).

The men’s squad features Chalmers, Jeremy Blakely (Tamworth), Addison Coutman (Tamworth) and Sam Wright (Armidale).

A host of northern talent is also set to represent NSW at the women’s masters nationals at Bunbury/Bussleton from September 27 to October 6.

Tamworth’s Aleasha Brown will play for the Over-40s, Tania Parker (Armidale) the Over-45s, Carolyn Beresford (Armidale), Cyndy Slade (Armidale) and Felicity Witts (Tamworth) the Over-50s and Angela Dean (Armidale) the Over-55s.

Armidale’s Amanda Coughlin (Over-50s) and Kaylene Osborne (Over-55s) and Tamworth’s Gail Salter (Over-55s) were also named as shadows.