He didn't bring his hockey stick, but Ehren Hazell did bring something else important back to Tamworth with him.
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Following the NSW Pride's Hockey One League triumph, somehow he ended up with the trophy.
"We just had it on the plane with us and then our coach was going back to Brisbane so I was like I'll take it to training. Then they gave us the week off training so it's just been with me for the week," he explained.
It is the 23-year-old's first visit home since he helped Tamworth break their State Open Men's Championship drought in June.
Since April he has virtually been living in Perth after getting an offer to play the season with Freemantle Cockburn.
Where the national squad is based, it seemed too good an opportunity to pass up, even though it meant relocating to the other side of the country.
He's glad he made the move. He got to train with the Kookaburras and "got a lot more exposure to the national program".
Combined with being part of the National Development Squad (NDS), it has motivated him to keep working hard - his Kookaburras dream seeming as close as it has ever been.
"I think it's just the realisation that it's like not that far away, you've just got to crack into the squad now," he said.
He threw himself right into it, training pretty much every day with a couple of the guys that he lived with.
"One of them he's is in the New Zealand national squad, the other one's in the development squad with me, we just trained and did running every day," he said.
"It was good being in that environment where other people have the same goals as you."
He also enjoyed the "change of scenery" after living in Sydney since he left Tamworth.
"It's really good, it's like Sydney without traffic," Hazell said.
The plan is to go back in January, although that hasn't been set in stone yet.
He is due to head back to Sydney on Wednesday for the finals of the Sydney indoor competition.
Something he has always enjoyed as a bit of fun - he is a former state junior indoor player of the year - Hazell is playing with Penrith in that, although due to his other commitments he has only played a couple of games so far.
He will be looking to make it a trifecta of wins for the year, following the Frogs' success and then the Prides'.
It was the striker's second taste of the Hockey One, but the first he fully felt involved in. In 2019 he only played a couple of games as he was away with the Australian under-21s and then wasn't selected for the finals.
This year he played every game and was a prominent figure.
He was the Pride's equal second top goalscorer for the tournament with four, and had a couple of good touches which led to scoring opportunities, both in their semi-final and the final against Perth.
Heading into the finals weekend very much outsiders after losing their last three games, the celebrations deservedly went long into the night after their 2-nil win over the Thundersticks.
As they did after Tamworth's state championship success. Something Hazell has been chasing since he was a teenager, he said it was "awesome" to be a part of.
It was a moment in history for the Frogs, and something he still enjoys reflecting on.
"Isaac (Farmilo) made all these highlight reels of all the games so they always come up every so often," he said.
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