Eddie Bone's relishing time at home over the Christmas period before launching into the Hockeyroos' jam-packed 2020 schedule, which includes the FIH Pro League and then, of course, the big one, the Tokyo Olympic Games.
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She's not taking herself away from hockey completely though, she and twin sister Meredith were on hand at Orange Hockey Centre to put the city's up-and-coming juniors through their paces on Wednesday and Thursday.
Learning from a Hockeyroo with almost 200 international appearances is a huge opportunity in itself but those on hand had the added bonus of Meredith's knowledge too, she starred in the Canberra Chill's run to the inaugural Hockey One semi-finals this year.
It's amazing to be back. I always try and head back at this time of year.
- Eddie Bone
"It's amazing to be back. I always try and head back at this time of year because it's the only time we really get off and Christmas is a great time to be back," Eddie said, although there's another reason she's returned too, a very special one.
"Meredith is getting married this weekend too, and that's another pretty good excuse to come home too."
Once the festive season is over Eddie's focus will shift back to the Hockeyroos though, their preparations for the Pro League and then the Olympics have already begun too.
"Our squad got named in mid-November I think it was and we've just had our induction camp to make sure we're on track and to tick a lot of boxes to make sure we're ready to be heads down, bums up when we come back in the new year," she explained.
They come back and kick-off straight away with the 2020 Pro League, an international home and away series which begins against Belgium at Sydney on Saturday, January 25.
"We made the final last year and we super, super close to winning, it's actually a really cool start to the year and will be a good lead-up to the Olympics," Eddie said, her feelings towards the Games are quite different to 2016.
"Rio in 2016 was my first Olympics and when I first got picked I was just so excited, everything was just so surreal but this time around I think I'm more determined to get to the Olympics, play well and hopefully help put Australia in a position to win a medal. It's a big year, I'm really looking forward to it all."
"Eddie has another milestone coming up too, she's only three games away from her 200th cap (for Australia)," Meredith added.
"Yeah, that's a little bit crazy," Eddie continued.
"That'll be another highlight in my career and I think it should be in Sydney so it'd be great to have my family there, we'll see what happens come selection time, but the main focus for next year is the Olympics."
The twins also had the rare chance to play together again in 2019, they took the field alongside one another for the Chill a handful of times, linking seamlessly as you'd expect considering how well they know each others' games.
"It doesn't happen all that often, the [Australian Hockey League] like it used to be called, now the Hockey One, is the only time we really get to play with each other," Meredith said.
"We love playing together and we still get people saying they watch us, see Eddie get a ball through to me or something and think 'oh, that twin thing they've got going on'.
"I actually rarely get to see Eddie because she's in Perth so it makes even better when we get to play together.
"We had a pretty successful season too, it was heart-breaking to lose to Melbourne in a shoot-out in the semi-final but it was such a good year.
"It's a new program but it was really successful, we had a great following and big membership and people flooded through the gates.
"It's great to see all the locals get behind us like that and support their team the way they do in the netball, or the cricket or rugby league."
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