The padded sell: Hockeyroo Toni Cronk on what it takes to be a goalkeeper

It's a specialist position and with less than 10 per cent of hockey players filling the role, guidance from an elite level is hard to come by.

Former Hockeyroo custodian Toni Cronk would be considered one of the elite and she was on hand at the Glenroi Hockey Centre on Tuesday to help some of Orange's rising goalkeeping talent improve their game.

Down-to-earth and sporting a blue beanie after shaving her trademark dreadlocks off for charity, Cronk has a decorated career that includes the Athens (2004) and London (2012) Olympics and Commonwealth Games gold in Melbourne (2006) and Delhi (2010).

She also thrives on giving back to the sport that's enabled her see a lot of the world.

Now it's enabling her to see Australia with her family packing up their orange bus about 15 months ago and heading north on a coaching adventure that's taken them down the east coast of Australia before arriving in Orange.

There's a lot to be said for the commitment and bravery of goalkeepers, who don't seem to be able to get enough of a hard, durable plastic balls being smashed at them at speeds often in advance of 100km/h, or throwing themselves in front stick-swinging attackers hell-bent on scoring.

"I feel that's a true field player comment to make ... but we're all a little bit nuts," Cronk jokes.

Now 42 and retired since 2013, Cronk has rolled with the changes in the sport but the one she rates among the best is the introduction of the one-on-one shoot-out which has become the standard way of deciding a match locked up at fulltime.

She believes it gives the goalkeeper an even chance of defending at attacker, compared to penalty strokes.

"One-on-one's for arguments sake, that had only just started when I finished but now they are becoming a real part of the game and I can see them becoming even more a part of the game," she said.

"And I can almost see them introducing them mid-game, to liven it up."

A veteran of 135 internationals with the Hockeyroos, Cronk said the one-on-one shootout is something she would have liked to have experienced more during her playing days.

"I would love that," she said.

"A penalty stroke, it really is in favour of the attacker. Now with the one-on-one, it makes it a little bit more even.

"I think it's exciting too. The crowd love it, goalies get to shine ..."

Cronk agreed the skills of the game are also becoming much more refined, especially in attacking set plays while in the goalkeeping ranks, players are tending towards the taller body shape.

"The drag-flickers are becoming stronger and faster, the game is becoming stronger and faster because people are becoming stronger and faster, and they're always trying to make the game more exciting," Cronk said.

Defence, particularly through the goalkeeper, has to keep up and Cronk is happy to do her bit to encourage and hone the skills of players attracted to the position.

"It attracts ...all types of people," she said.

"There's a change in the way I coach, I coach some things differently to how I did them as an athlete. I'm just trying to make goalkeeping easy for young athletes."

Cronk obviously has a hockey brain and has coached teams since retiring but admits when that happens, goalkeepers are neglected.

"I think everyone realises how important and how critical a goalkeeper can be for a team, but when a coach is out there and they have 16 athletes and one goal keeper, [giving feedback to the keeper] is actually really difficult to do," she said.

"That's why I only coach goalkeepers now."

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