Bathurst aims for semi-finals at Hockey NSW Open Women's Field State Championships

While injuries have forced alterations to Bathurst's squad and Canberra Chill talent Rebecca Lee will need to manage an ankle issue, coach Jye Bunt still has a strong core to work with.

It includes his wife Tamsin, who has represented Australia in both indoor and outdoor formats, in the centre and while she's one of the older members of the squad she's still playing quality hockey.

"She's still dominating now in the Sydney comp, she's had a few games with the 21s girls which has been good for her and she's getting plenty of games under her belt," Bunt said.

"It certainly helps having Tamsin in the team, she does demand a fair bit of respect and step up."

As well as the leadership and experience which Tamsin Bunt brings to the side, the Bathurst skipper will also play a key role in feeding the ball to strikers Sarah and Jess Watterson over the three-day tournament at Narellan.

"We have a couple of girls who can score goals and having both Wattos as strikers, hopefully we can get them ball and if they get the ball, they are scoring goals," coach Bunt said.

"If you can get three-four goals in a game you are going to win more games than you lose. With Tamsin there in the middle controlling it and hopefully getting them the ball, we should be okay."

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Standing behind them in goals will be Lithgow native Renee Hunter. The experienced shot blocker has played for both New South Wales and ACT in the past and three years ago toured China with the Australian under 23s.

She is one of two goalkeepers in the Bathurst squad, the other being current NSW under 21s talent Mackenzi Harvey.

"I think having good keepers is a pretty big key for any team, you've got to make sure you don't leak those easy goals. You are going to have goals scored against you, but you don't want to leak easy ones," Bunt said.

"So having Renee and Mackenzi, I've seen her keep in the Sydney comp and at 21s training and she's kept quite well."

The rest of the squad is made up of players from Bathurst's Premier League Hockey clubs and the ACT, Bunt's side being placed in the same pool as Orange, Illawarra South Coast, Nepean and Metro South West.

The top two sides in each of the five-team pools advance to the semi-finals.

"I always have very high expectations so every year I expect good outcomes ... but you never really know what other sides have got, I feel this year I'm going in a bit more blind as normal," he said.

"Because we didn't play last year it makes it a little bit hard to know where we might stand, but if the girls all play well I'm hoping for a top four finish to start with.

"I'm hoping we can make the semis and at least keep away from relegation. Once you go down, it's very, very hard to go back up."

In order to help manage Lee's ankle issues, Emily Watterson, who plays division one in Armidale, has been drafted in as super substitute for the first three games.

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