SARAH Watterson’s New South Wales Country women’s side may have fallen one win short of the national title on Saturday, but she still earned a golden prize from the Australian Country Hockey Championships.
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After the Bathurst hockey talent had accepted her silver medal at the titles in Berri, South Australia, she got to hear her name read out as a member of the women’s Australian Country representative team.
She is now set to wear green and gold at the Hawkes Bay Hockey Festival in New Zealand.
Watterson’s club coach, Jaden Ekert, got the chance to watch her in action when not busy with his New South Wales Country men’s mentoring duties.
He was impressed by what he saw and said the national selection was well deserved.
“She was phenomenal all week,” he said.
“Going away with a slight hamstring problem and then playing the tournament and playing the house down really – I was proud of her.
“Unfortunately they missed out on the gold medal, but it’s sport and that happens.”
Watterson and her NSW team-mates, including Bathurst City goalkeeper Maddy Tattersall, went down 1-0 to Queensland in the decider.
Prior to that, NSW Country posted three wins, a 2-all draw against Queensland and 1-0 loss at the hands of Australian Defence Force in its pool games to finish the preliminary rounds in second.
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NSW went on to beat Australian Defence Force in a semi-final thriller, Watterson one of three players in blue who scored in a penalty shoot-out to see her side prevail 3-1.
It was her third goal of the tournament.
Saturday’s announcement was not the first time Watterson’s name has been included in an Australian Country squad – she has represented the under 21s team a number of times including the 2015 tour of Fiji.
However Ekert, who coaches her as part of the St Pat’s women’s Premier League Hockey outfit, feels this season has been one of her best.
She has scored plenty of goals for the Saints, yet she is not the only member of the team that has filled that sort of role.
“I think it’s the added pressure that has been taken off her because she’s not in a team where she’s relied upon heavily. We’ve got quality all across the park and Watto just adds to that quality, it’s not like she’s a single player,” he said.
“It think that takes the stress off her, she can just go out there and do her job.”
Watterson will return to her club duties this Saturday when the Saints travel to Orange to take on CYMS.
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