When Bathurst hockey star Tamsin Bunt completed a defenders camp last week after winning the Australian Hockey League crown with the NSW Arrows on the previous Saturday, she checked her inbox and was given the biggest news of her career.

She was a Hockeyroos squad member.

Bunt was named in a 27-strong training squad for an upcoming warm-up Test series against New Zealand in Wellington and the Champions Trophy that will follow in Argentina.

The announcement doesn’t mean she will automatically get to don the green and gold, but she is very, very close to it, and she will be hoping she can be part of the 18-player group that makes the cut for New Zealand.

“It is amazing, it is what I’ve worked for my whole career,” the defensive mid-fielder said.

“The AHL finished, we went to the defenders camp through until last Tuesday and I saw the email and just couldn’t believe it – all that hard work had paid off.

“I always hoped that I could get this far. It was in the back of my mind every step of the way, and as I kept taking little steps forward I just had to keep thinking ‘now I am just that little bit closer to getting there’.

“It is the highlight of my career without a doubt.”

The highlights haven’t stopped coming in Bunt’s career so far.

She was picked in her first Arrows squad in 2008 as a 19-year-old and, six years later, she has been part of national youth squads, the Australian indoor side, and a number of Australian development training groups.

But this is new territory.

The next step is to make the most of a three-week training camp in Perth leading up to the final cut for the New Zealand trip.

The one thing counting against Bunt is the fact her position will attract plenty of competition.

“The first thing I have to do is make sure I impress the selectors with my fitness and just work as hard as I physically can to show them what I can do,” she said.

“A team will be named in two weeks and I want my name to be there.

“Unfortunately, my position is probably the hardest one to get a start in. A lot of the best players are there, like Casey Eastham and Teneal Attard.

“I play in that central role as well. Those girls are the backbone of the team, but I’ve just got to try and battle my way in there somewhere.”

Bunt brings a refreshing realism when it comes to her international prospects that makes it easy to believe she will wear her nation’s colours sooner or later.

The upcoming tour and the Champions Trophy that follow it are the focus in the short term.

But in just under two years, the Rio de Janeiro Olympics loom large.

“Even if I don’t make the squad for those trips, at least I know that I’m there now, I’m in the mix,” she said.

“It still feels like there is a bit of a way to go for me yet and more work to do, but hopefully this is just the beginning and I can keep my name there for a while yet.”