State selections 'huge' for Goulburn district hockey players

The selections were "huge" for the district, GDHA secretary Sharney Fleming said.

"It's huge that we're getting this amount of players selected," she said.

"It's vital for us as an association to have these children recognised ... the children who got selected are the ones who deserve it, but the ones who missed out may make it next year."

Fleming praised the NSW selection system as a driving force behind the constant improvement of the junior players.

"It's very hard with selections, if they got selected last last year it doesn't mean they're an automatic this year," she said.

"With NSW, they get a report on their strengths and their weaknesses that they have to work on for next year. They already have a player profile that they can aspire to."

The strength of the local players, believes former Kookaburra Glenn Turner, is down to the aptitude and dedication of local coaches.

"I think it's due to some of the coaches that are around, they've developed their skills from a young age and it's started to pay off," Turner said.

"I think there are also a lot of better pathways for these juniors, it's helped Goulburn out a lot."

Along with the juniors who were named, a number of senior players have been selected who have long been staples in the representative indoor teams.

Turner, Sass Economos, Jake Staines, Ben Staines, and Troy Sutherland were all named in the ACT Open teams for next month's tournament.

Turner hopes the inclusion of the Staines twins, who both played Under 21s in 2019, will help the ACT overcome NSW's dominance.

"It's very hard to beat NSW, they've won it for many years in a row now," Turner said.

"I feel confident, and guys like Ben and Jake were [in the Under 21s] last year, and they're two of the best players in Australia. With those two, we should hopefully be really hard to beat."

The 2020 Australian Indoor Hockey Festival will take place in Wollongong. It will get underway with the Open division from January 4-7, which will be followed by the Under 21 division from January 9-12, the Under 18s from January 13-16, Under 13s from January 18-21 and will wrap up with the Under 15s from January 22-26.

Under 13s Boys

Under 13s Girls

Under 15s Boys

Under 15s Girls

Under 18s Boys

Under 18s Girls

Under 21s Men

Under 21s Women

Open Men

Open Women

Did you know the Goulburn Post is now offering breaking news alerts and a weekly email newsletter? Keep up-to-date with all the local news: sign up here.