BATHURST might be missing one of its stars for this year's Hockey NSW Open Women's State Championships, but you can still expect a brand of aggressive, attacking hockey as the outfit looks to shine on home turf.
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Bathurst's Cooke Hockey Complex will act as host for the annual three-day championships which features 23 teams fighting it out across three divisions.
Being at home is something Bathurst 1 coach Jye Bunt hopes will inspire his team to challenge for the honours in the top division even in the absence of his pregnant wife Tasmin Bunt - a player with vast Australian Hockey League experience and a number of national caps.
She will instead manage the team.
Just who will fill the centre half role for Bathurst remains to be seen, but the coach is hoping the experienced Lisa Quinn shoulders some of the on-field leadership.
"Not having Tamsin is a massive loss for us this year. She's our centre half, for state she's centre half too, to have someone with that amount of experience and who controls the whole field ... she's a big loss," Bunt said.
"But Lisa has good experience and hopefully she can help direct the girls around the park.
"Tammy and I are still trying to decide who will play there and who will be the best fit for that role. Obviously it is going to have to be someone who is quite fit as they will have to play quite a few minutes."
Given Bathurst is acting as host, the Bunts still have a line-up that boast plenty of experience. ACT representative Bec Lee will line up, as will Australian National Development squad member and NSW Arrow Jess Watterson.
Four members of the 2018 women's Premier League Hockey title winning St Pat's team will also line up for Bathurst 1, but Bunt is just as excited to see what the less experienced players bring to the attacking arsenal.
Attacking hockey is what Bunt wishes to see from his side as he targets a place in the semi-finals.
"I'm excited to see these younger ones play, especially in the strikers. I think especially in the last few years Bathurst have had some alright strikers, but we haven't had enough to finish games. When we might have been the better team throughout the game, we haven't been able to score goals," he said.
"So that is a big thing for us this weekend. We are probably more focused on strikers and scoring goals than our defensive side of things. It is better to win 10-9 than to lose 1-0.
"It doesn't matter what team you have, if it's a Sydney team, Bathurst team, you set goals for a team and expectations.
"I do expect semi-finals, we are at home and hopefully have a decent crowd there to support us, so we should be able to pick the wins up and get us over the line. I set goals quite high, a semi-final spot is where I am setting it and then from there we will take it one game at a time."
I set goals quite high, a semi-final spot is where I am setting it.
- Bathurst 1 coach Jye Bunt
Securing one of the four semi-final spots will not be easy given 10 teams will contest the division one crown.
They have been split into two pools for the round games on Saturday and Sunday. The top two in each of those pools advance to the Monday morning semi-finals.
Bathurst's Pool A also consists of Metro South West 1, Northern Sydney and Beaches, Newcastle and Illawarra South Coast 1.
Bunt feels they will be closely matched and points to one of the bigger threats lying in Pool B.
"In our pool I think it's pretty even, all the teams have good players and handy players who can bring different things to it," he said.
"I think Tamworth on the other side, the other pool, they're a team to watch out for. They have a very good coach and obviously having people like [Hockeyroo] Kate Jenner and a few other handy young girls in the team will help them.
"I think they will be a dark horse, but the Sydney teams, you can't go past them."
The Bathurst 1 team will not be the only outfit from the host association vying for glory, as the lime green and white colours will also feature in division three.
That outfit, to be coached by Ben Weal, features a mix of emerging talents with some of the more experienced Bathurst representatives who now play at a masters level.
Bunt thinks it is a big positive for Bathurst to have the second team, particularly given the role it will play in development.
"That's really promising, and I'm hoping when they do go away [in future years] they will be able to retain that," he said.
"It gives the younger ones the chance to get experience and see what it is like to play senior hockey at a higher level. When you don't have that and have fresh people coming into a first division team, then it does make it very hard and it can be daunting for those players.
"Having the second team there gives them the exposure to what rep hockey is about and hopefully they can enjoy it, tell their friends and push it a bit further."
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Bunt admitted one of the Bathurst 3 players - Kristy Ekert - is someone he would love to have in his outfit, but he feels her leadership will be important.
"Kristy, I think she's a brilliant player. She's a great finisher and she's also a very good inspiration to those young ones and able to direct them well," he said.
"For us it's a bit of a loss not having her in the [top] team.
"[But] To be able to mix the younger ones with the experienced players, have the young ones coming through, is important.
"I think what you get from club hockey is completely different to what you get from rep hockey. You have have obviously got to try and bleed them in slowly, you can't take a whole bunch in one go."
Bathurst 1 will open its campaign at 8am on Saturday morning against Newcastle before meeting Northern Sydney and Beaches at 12.40pm.
Bathurst 3 also has an early start - squaring off with North West Sydney at 9.10am - before meeting Illawarra South Coast at 5.20pm Saturday evening.
