Seven of Tamworth’s young hockey stars will be hoping for a golden start to 2019.
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Abigail Doolan, Isaac Farmilo, Ehren Hazell, Nick O’Connor, Amber Witney, Ben O’Connor and Sam Griffith will be part of NSW’s assault on the Australian Indoor Hockey Festival.
The three week festival gets underway in Goulburn on January 4 and will incorporate under-13s, under-15s, under-18s, under-21s and opens divisions.
Farmilo and Hazell will play for the under-21 men, Doolan the under-21 women, Nick O’Connor the under-15 boys, Witney the under-15 girls, and Ben O’Connor, Clarke and Griffith in the under-13 boys.
The under-13s title will be the first decided and after winning silver with the NSW Stars side at the outdoor equivalent Griffith will be looking to roar with the Lions side.
It will be his first time donning the blue at the indoor nationals, and as he did back in October he will assume the keeping duties.
The speed of the indoor game is often noted as one of the biggest differences between the two formats, and for a keeper is one of the biggest challenges.
“It’s a lot quicker,” Griffith said.
“You don’t really get much of a rest.”
He was selected in the squad following last month’s state championships.
“I was happy with how I played. It was probably the best indoor I’ve played,” he said.
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Doolan is stepping up from the under-18s and was “pretty stoked” to make the side.
“I wasn’t expecting to be selected but very excited,” she said.
A regular feature in NSW sides – both field and indoor – since the under-13s, it has been a couple of years since she has played indoor at a national level.
“I hadn’t played any indoor nationals since I was bottom age 18s (2016).
“I had a bit of a break during school,” she said.
In readiness she has been doing a lot of fitness training, and played in the local Armidale indoor competition to try and get her skills back up to scratch.
By her own admission “a bit rusty” when she first started playing in Armidale, she said when she went away for the state championships it took her a couple of games to get back into it.
“But I’m slowly getting back on top of everything,” she said, adding that it is “second nature”.
Hockey New England will also have a heavy presence in Goulburn with Pip Constable suiting up for the NSW under-13 Lions girls, Elliot Clarke the under-13 Lions boys, Chelsea Thornton the under-15 girls, Rohan Lawrence and Tyler McCann the under-15 boys, Meg Lye and Lily Neilson the under-18 girls and Nathan Czinner and Jake McCann the under-18 boys.
Maible Chalmers and Bri Sutton have also been picked up by the Tasmanian under-21s, Britt Parker the Tasmanian open women’s and Ben Hanlan the Tasmanian open men while Talia Constance will play for ACT in both the open and under-21s women’s championships.
Former Hockey New England representative player Elise Matherson will meanwhile suit up for the Queensland under-21’s women.
