SINCE Tahni Isedale made the decision to sign up with Souths a decade ago she has certainly endured some tough times with the two blues, but so far season 2019 has been about positives.
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It was a positive when Souths beat Bathurst City 1-0 in round one. It was their first win over their local women's Premier League Hockey rival since 2014.
It was a positive last Saturday when Souths downed Ex-Services 2-1 to make it back-to-back wins to start a campaign for the first time in five years.
And even when Souths was subsequently stripped of that win over Exies for inadvertently fielding an unregistered player, the two blues remained positive.
"In our minds we've still beat two teams and we're really happy with that. In terms of losing the points, obviously it's really disappointing, but there's nothing we can do about it now. That's the rules, we played an unregistered player, so we just have to pick things up and start again," Isedale said.
"We've had a really positive start to the year. We found out Monday that we'd lost the points, on Tuesday we had 19 girls at training which is the most we've had. We also played a bit of a prank on our coach and made him wear a tutu around for not registering the player."
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A Mittagong native, Isedale started playing hockey when she was around four-years-old. When university studies led her to Bathurst, she continued her association with the sport.
She has since gone on to form an integral part of Souths' defensive unit in the Premier League competition and this year is captain of the two blues under new coach Chris Stafford.
"One of my dad's mates played for Souths so I just registered for them. It's probably the best decision I've made, I've had a really good time playing hockey for Souths," she said.
"I think it terms of having Staffo - he's been around the club for quiet a few years now - he's really keen and it rubs off on the girls.
"The girls are all really positive and we've got quite a few juniors coming through, which is really nice. For the first year in a little while we've got some depth."
Isedale and her fellow defenders have been in good touch so far this season, the only goal they conceded being an unlucky deflection in the Exies match.
However, Isedale was struck in the knee during that contest and has been sidelined for this Saturday's clash against competition heavyweights Lithgow Panthers.
The skipper knows her team-mates will need to lift further if they are to prevail at Bob Roach Field, Panthers having scored nine goals in its two games thus far.
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"We've been scrambling really well. We were defending most of the game against City and there was a patch of defence in the second half against Servies as well," she said.
"We've got a fairly solid defence I think, but it will be put to the test this week with Panthers because they look to be very, very strong again.
"They've always got really good depth all the way through, they've got young kids who are in the state side and old heads that have all that experience.
"I don't think there's a bad player on the field for Panthers. They're the benchmark."
Saturday's game starts at 1.50pm.
