WHEN the best hockey talents from outside the nation’s metropolitan regions gather in Wollongong this weekend for the 2015 Australian Country Championships, Bathurst’s reputation as a heavyweight of the sport will be underlined.

Bathurst will be represented in both the NSW Country men’s and women’s outfits, with Kelly Baker, Sarah Watterson, Casey Bayliss and Maddie Boyce plus Luke Thorncraft, Jaden Ekert and Dylan Smith making the trip.

Adding to this, the NSW Country women’s team was originally set to include five Bathurst players, but work commitments have forced Bathurst City talent Kelsey Willott to withdraw from the event.

While gaining representative honours is something all of the Bathurst talents are proud of, they are not content to just settle with that. 

They are all keen to push for success with their state and possible take the next step in earning Australian Country representation.

It would build on what was a strong showing last year from Bathurst talents.

The 2014 men’s team, including Smith and St Pat’s talent Sam Macpherson, won the grand final over Queensland Country 2-1 in a hard-fought decider.

Last year the NSW Country women’s side went through the round robin stage undefeated before going down to defending champions Queensland Country 4-1 in the grand final.

Willott, Boyce, Watterson, Bayliss and St Pat’s goalkeeper Karen Fieldus were all in that NSW Country side and all earned Australian Country spots for their efforts at the tournament.

Bayliss is excited to play alongside a large number of her home city players once more in 2015.

“Bathurst hockey has always been strong, so it’s not surprising to see those numbers there again,” she said.

“We have Kelly Baker selected at striker, Watto at striker as well and myself, so that’s almost the entire attacking line locked out by Bathurst players.”

While making it to the final is no easy task, Bayliss admitted she would love nothing more than a win over NSW Countrys’ fierce rivals from north of the border.

“It would be nice to take the title from them [Queensland Country]. It’s always been a bit of a state of origin with them. Last year was a really hard fought game,” she said.

“This is going to be a very different team we’re taking in compared to the one we had last year, it’s a much younger side. It will be interesting to see what these younger players will be able to bring to the table.

“We’ve still got players there like Holli Wheeler and Kim McLean, who are our captains and both players that I’ve played representative with before. They’ll be strong as our core. We’ll definitely be missing Karen [Fieldus] in goals though.”

Both the men’s and women’s NSW Country teams will get their competition underway on tomorrow morning against South Australia Country.