From the moment Toni Cronk strapped on the goalkeeping pads, the former Hockeyroo says she loved it.
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The two-time Olympian was about 11 when she first stepped into the net after being introduced to the sport when a teacher arrived at her primary school "who just loved hockey".
She had played soccer up until then but was always keen to try any sport.
"Then 12 months into playing hockey a coach said 'do you want to have a go in goals'," she recalled.
To which she replied "yes definitely".
"And I played and absolutely loved it," she said.
A decade later she was suiting up for her country.
On Friday local goalkeepers and those visiting for this weekend's York Cup and Kim Small Shield had the chance to learn some of the tricks of the trade with Cronk hosting a series of goalkeeping clinics.
The two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, who started up Toni Cronk Goalkeeping following her retirement from international hockey in 2013, wanting to "give back to hockey", has spent the last 18 months travelling around the country with her family in a "big orange bus" and conducting clinics.
"We went from Perth, did the south west of WA then drove up north and we've come around the top and I've done goalie clinics all the way through Queensland and now into NSW and then we'll follow on to Canberra, Victoria, SA and then back home," she said.
A 'working road trip', she has has loved getting out and seeing the country, and helping inspire the next generation of goalkeepers.
"I feel like sometimes they get left out and I just want to help as much as I can," Cronk said.
Asked what she was hoping the participants take away from the clinics, she said a bit of "confidence" and "also a tiny little bit more efficiency of movement".
The former is huge thing for a goalkeeper.
"I think goalkeeping is 80 per cent mental and 20 per cent skill," she said.
The timing of Cronk's visit couldn't have been more perfect with over 500 budding young players descending on Tamworth for the annual under-11s carnival.
Back to full operational capacity after a COVID-affected last two years (the event was cancelled in 2020 and last year the metro teams were unable to attend), this year's edition has attracted 43 teams from all over the state.
"That's not quite where we got to pre-COVID, we were over 50 then, but we're starting to build those numbers back up," Tamworth Hockey Association president Ross Briggs said.
Named after Tamworth Olympians Michael York and Kim Small, the carnival is all about development and as has been the tradition in recent years there were skills clinics for the players on Friday afternoon.
"It's not just the player development, there's the coach development as well so we'll have some sessions there. Greg Doolan's going to be running some stuff for us," Briggs continued.
"He can help with accreditation for those coaches that want that as well."
"And umpire accreditation as well. So all the juniors get in and they have a go at the umpiring and they'll be under the guidance of some of our top coaches here."
The action on the field gets underway at 8am on Saturday morning and continues through to Monday.
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