BATHURST’S Tamsin Bunt is no stranger to the Australian Hockey League but that won’t diminish her excitement for this year’s edition, which gets underway in Perth on Thursday.
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Bunt and her NSW Arrows have journeyed to Perth on a mission to get themselves back to the top of the competition after they missed out on a grand final appearance in last year’s AHL tournament at home.
The Bathurst player said her team are motivated to try and get their hands on the nation’s top domestic title once again, which they last won in 2014.
“This will be my seventh year playing in the competition, I believe. It’s very exciting to be back again,” she said.
“We missed out on the grand final last year and that was a huge disappointment for us. We’re a good enough team to be in that top two again but of course it all depends on how you play on the day.”
Joining Bunt as Central West representatives will be Lithgow’s Abby Wilson and Rene Hunter.
Bunt will be one of the veterans in what’s a younger looking Arrows outfit than in previous years.
However, she’s looking forward to the challenge.
“There’s a few returning faces but it’s quite a younger team with a fair few debutants. We also won’t be having a few of our Olympians playing for us this time. Casey Eastham and Emily Smith won’t be there,” she said.
“Some of the girls I haven’t played with before so it was great getting to know them over our practice sessions and our practice games.
“With each practice game and session with found things to work on and we’ll be ready for the competition.”
The Arrows get their campaign underway at 12.30pm local time Thursday against South Australia in their Pool B clash.
NSW have been lucky to avoid three other potential winning sides during the pool stage, including defending champions Queensland.
“Definitely Queensland will be one to watch, though I’m not sure how much of that team will be back for this year. Western Australia will be strong and also the ACT, who we played in a practice game not long ago and they beat us,” Bunt said.
“I think those four teams, including us, will be very strong.”
NSW have SA, Northern Territory, Victoria and Malaysia in their pool. Arrows require a top two finish to progress on to the finals.
The Arrows won’t be completely devoid of Olympic talent as Georgie Morgan, Grace Stewart and Mariah Williams are set to play.
if Bunt wanted an additional shot of confidence going into the competition then she certainly got it with a recent accolade.
“I’ve been playing club hockey in Sydney with UTS and was named the best and fairest for the entire Sydney [Metro Women’s League] competition. That was really nice,” she said.
“That gives me a lot of confidence knowing that I’ve had a great season playing in Sydney.
“After AHL I’ve got my Australian indoor squad games starting so there’s a lot going on. It never ends.
“I’ll have indoor nationals in January … and while it would be to be in the Hockeyroos squad I was coming back from a knee injury last year, but you never know.”