Gary, Zelma Bone to tune into Olympics from home as Edwina leads Hockeyroos

The Bones were set to fly to Tokyo last year despite worldwide COVID-19 concerns but, after the Games were postponed to begin this month, Gary said they were aware there was next to no chance travel bans would be lifted in time.

More than that though, as Mr Bone put it - "there's people in far worse situations right now than us".

"I'm reading every day about people stuck overseas, or people unable to see their families and sometimes in medical emergencies, whereas we can't get to Tokyo to watch hockey," Mr Bone said.

"So no, we're not too concerned with that one, compared to us there's people with much bigger concerns."

Fortunately the Bones were able to make it to Perth to watch Edwina and the Hockeyroos' tune-up games against New Zealand recently, of course doing so while COVID-19 restrictions allowed the trip west from Orange of course.

Making it to Perth was a priority not just because the Tokyo trip was impossible but also because, at 33 and with more than 200 appearances since her debut in 2013, Eddie is in the twilight years of her international career.

"We know there might not be many more opportunities to watch her play for Australia, depending on what she chooses to do in the future of course, so we're very much coveting every chance we get to watch her play," Mr Bone said.

"Even though she's played so many games for Australia it certainly never gets any less exciting, in fact it's probably more exciting now, it's still not every day you get to watch your daughter play for her country, especially at the Olympics."

Fortunately, time difference will be on the Bones' side this time around as well.

They've spent years hauling themselves out of bed at all hours of the night to watch Eddie and the Hockeyroos, but they'll relish the one-hour difference between Orange and Tokyo.

"It does mean we don't have to get up in the middle of the night or very early in the morning, we're definitely pleased about that," Mr Bone laughed.

"Obviously we would, we always have when they've played overseas but this does make it easier."

Mr Bone wouldn't, or couldn't rather considering the Olympics' unpredictability, hazard a prediction at how the Hockeyroos will fare, but of course said he'd love nothing more than to see the Australian side win a gold medal.

"I think they'll be very well prepared at least, they've played games at night to prepare for what they'll face in Tokyo and they fly to Darwin soon for an acclimatisation camp," he said, the latter in line with the scorching temperatures and humidity expected in Japan.

"But it's hard to know, look at Rio in 2016, [Great Britain] won the gold medal there but they were ranked about sixth from memory and their form hadn't been great leading in.

"So we'd love to see Australia win a gold medal, but I think more than anything we'd just like to see them play well and play to their potential."

That didn't happen at Rio in 2016, when Eddie and the Hockeyroos were disappointingly bundled out at the quarter-final stage. It was the first time since 1984 neither the women's or men's teams made at least the semi-finals.

The hockey tournament runs from Saturday, July 25 until Friday, August 7 on days one through 14 of the Tokyo Olympic Games.

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