After playing a starring role in the sky blues’ silver medal campaign Hoey was named in the Australian Country senior women’s side, while CYMS teammate Courtney Hogan and Confederates’ gun Millah Allcorn both earned under-21 call-ups.

Hoey’s no stranger to the side being an incumbent and Dubbo-based Hogan has also retained her place in the under-21 side after donning green and gold in 2017, while Allcorn’s call-up marks her first national selection.

Hoey’s side will head to New Zealand to contest the Hawkes Bay Hockey Festival while the under-21 outfit will compete at the Oceania Pacific Cup in Fiji in December.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to play for Australia again, and head off to New Zealand with a good group of girls,” Hoey beamed.

“[Hogan and Allcorn both] performed really well, it’s great to see how strong Orange hockey is, we had five in the team which is far more than any other town.”

Hoey, Hogan and Allcorn were joined in the NSW side by CYMS’ Madie Smith and Confederates’ Rachel Pengilly, both of whom Hoey said were superb, although the latter was struck down by injury early in the campaign.

“I feel for Rachel, she was a late call-up (to the NSW side) and played a great first game  but then badly injured her knee in the second game,” Hoey lamented.

The NSW side, which also included a host of other central west players, lost just one game on its way to the gold medal game last week, going down 1-nil to the Australian Defence Force in the group stage.

The sky blues held their nerve the next time they faced the ADF though, in the semi-finals, winning a tense shootout 3-1 to face Queensland in the decider.

The Maroons had been the standout side all week and proved it in the grand final with a 1-nil win, Holly Gilbar’s 10^th minute field goal proving the difference.

“We were aiming for gold so it was disappointing to fall short,” Hoey admitted.

“The game was close, it could have gone either way and we all gave 100 per cent, it just didn’t go our way.”

Hoey’s side will be joined at Hawkes Bay by the senior men’s Australian side, which will include Orange’s Nic Milne and Michael Dillon, who now play for Lithgow Panthers and Zig Zag respectively.

They both retained their places in the national side after helping NSW to a gold medal, both scoring in the sky blues’ emphatic 5-nil decider win over Queensland.

Lithgow’s Taylor Dolbel jagged a goal in that decider as well, which capped off NSW’s dominant, undefeated week and also secured the sky blues’ sixth consecutive national championship win.

““It’s not very often you win a national championship (and) we’re actually the first NSW team to win more than five in a row,” Bathurst’s Jaden Ekert, NSW’s coach, said.

“Some of it comes down to luck and some of it comes down to how you prepare, this year it was all about our preparation. It was faultless from start to finish.

“If you prepare well you are going to get the job done, but against a team like Queensland, it’s who wants to win it more. We were clearly the most dominant side there, which was awesome.”

Lithgow’s Amelia Leard and Jess Luchetti and Bathurst’s Sarah Watterson were also named in the senior women’s Australian side.

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