Not only did Howard take the field for NSW on his recovery from the injury, he was a multiple man-of-the-match winner on his way towards selection in the SSA team to tour South Africa next year.

Howard was one of five NSW players selected in the squad of 18.

NSW might have missed out on the top team prize at the conclusion of the week's action in Newcastle but the selection in the Australian team fulfilled the main individual goal Howard had pencilled in at the start of the season.

That chance almost didn't arrive, since Howard was injured at the time of the NSW team selections.

Howard was awarded a place based on his previous form and he didn't let the selectors down.

He'd already missed a shot at SSA level last year when a hip flexor injury kept him sidelined.

This time he was at the top of his game and at full fitness, landing best-on-ground honours in NSW's nil-all draw with Victoria and their 3-0 victory over the ACT.

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Howard felt like the Australian selection was a realistic possibility following several weeks back in the groove.

"I played a couple of games before the tournament. I'd broken my finger eight weeks ago but gradually got into training again and my confidence came back after a couple of weeks," he said.

"We trained for a couple of days as a team and had a couple of trials against the [NSW] Blues. We had a tough games straight away against Queensland and we had a 3-all draw.

"We had a couple of good wins then had a nil-all draw with Victoria. After a few more wins we had a nil-all draw with Western Australia."

The draw with their western opponents would prove costly in NSW's gold medal bid.

NSW needed Queensland to win their last pool game but their northern rivals went down heavily to Victoria.

The boys in blue bagged a consolation prize when a 4-1 win over the ACT gave them the bronze medal.

Howard said, importantly, he's back feeling 100 per cent healthy.

"I really felt like I played well. The confidence was really up and it was good to get a couple of man-of-the-match awards," he said.

"I've put a lot of hard work into this. It was my main goal for the year and I got there."

No date has been confirmed for next year's South African tour.

Next on the agenda for Howard will be the pursuit of semi-finals hockey with Ryde's second grade outfit in Sydney Premier League. His team currently sit fifth.