Hotham is flying the flag for the Bathurst Panthers alongside St Pat's players Bronte Emanuel, Paige Hay, Meredith Jones, Erin Naden and Michelle Somers.

With the addition of Rebecca Ford (Orange Hawks) and Sophie Stammers (Blayney Bears) Group 10 representatives make up half the Western team.

Hotham was thrilled to gain a third start with the squad.

"It's always an absolute privilege to play at this level and it is such a competitive level full of high quality footy," she said.

"I didn't expect to be selected this year. We've got such a great selection of girls in the Central West. It's never guaranteed you're going to get in ... so I was stoked."

The strong Group 10 presence comes as no surprise after their 24-6 victory over Group 11 at Forbes, giving the winners their seventh straight Western title.

Western will go up against Riverina this Saturday as they look to get their southern pool round robin campaign off to a flying start.

The Western Rams girls will then go up against Monaro and Greater Southern Stars over the following two rounds, with the highest placed side going through to play against the northern pool winner.

Western were knocked out of last year's competition in heartbreaking fashion 24-18 against Illawarra South Coast Dragons.

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Hotham has seen on several occasions the standard of tag needed to compete at the championships level and she likes what she sees in this year's Western lineup.

"The way they play the game is so much quicker than how we played it around here, which is why this year our coach Jess Skinner has picked speed across the field," she said.

"She's done that to combat what we've come up against in the last two years.

"I think most of the teams are similar to the last few years. Last year we had a really tough game first up last year ... when we got knocked out by one of the top teams from the year before.

"They don't play the positions like we do out here. For example they don't have a dummy half, they just have someone who jumps in - much like touch football.

"We've learned from that and we've worked on that at training to develop that as well. I think we've got the right sort of team for it as well."

Hotham's been a shining light for the Panthers in what's been a testing season for the traditionally strong Bathurst outfit.

The fullback, who is one of the founding members of the Panthers tag squad, has played a vital role in keeping the team inside a crucial top five position.