Three years after making her international debut, Orange hockey product Edwina Bone fought back tears after finding out she’d been named to represent Australia at the Rio Olympic Games next month.

“I was shocked. Excited. I’m pretty sure at some point I began to cry,” Bone laughed.

“We found out on Friday, but I couldn’t sit around and wait for the message so we all went out for breakfast.

“When the email came through we all celebrated together; my brother, my boyfriend and a few friends. It was great.”

Despite being a mainstay in the Hockeyroos system since her debut in April 2013, Bone said she didn’t want to get swept up in the thought about one day being on Olympian.

“The Olympics is always a dream, but I never really thought it would ever be a reality,” she said.

“I was first picked after the London Games (in 2012) and at that point it was always about just getting some games under my belt.

“As the year got closer and closer, and I didn’t miss a tournament, I thought I’d be a chance. 

“I had my fingers crossed. Something went my way.”

Bone chalked up her 100th international cap against Japan in April, and since her initial selection in Adam Commens’ squad in 2013 she’s been an integral part of the Hockeyroos defence.

Currently ranked three in the world, Bone’s Hockeyroos side will be one of a handful of nations with serious claims on a medal, with the very real potential for its colour to be gold.

Fresh of a fourth-place ending to the Champions Trophy in London, the 28-year-old former Kinross Wolaroi School graduate is expecting the Olympics to be the highest level of competition she’s experienced.

“Definitely. Even at the Champions Trophy (last month), every team has picked it up,” Bone said, one of the most experienced players in the squad.

“We weren’t far off either, there was only a goal separating the top few teams. Bring on the Olympics – anything can happen.”

Bone has been part of winning teams at the Oceania Cup in 2013 and 2015 as well as gold medal winning Hockeyroos sides at both the World League finals in 2013 and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

There’s only four returning Olympians from London, 2012, with Bone one of 12 debutantes, including Parkes-born Mariah Williams, to contest the August 6 opener.

Australia's women head into the first South American Games as world number three, and will compete in Pool B against Argentina, Great Britain, USA, Japan and India.

The top four from each of the two pools will progress to the all-or-nothing quarter-finals as each team pushes towards the gold medal match on August 18.

"In the end we have selected a fantastic group of players that are all in fantastic form,” Commens added.

“To win Olympic medals it's important to have in form players.”