Bathurst under 18s go out with a bang at Hockey NSW Indoor State Championships

They beat Wagga, they doubled their goal tally for the tournament and produced their best defensive display.

Before the Bathurst side made the trip to Goulburn for the titles, which had been deferred from 2021 due to COVID-19, coach Erin Cobcroft had predicted her side, although packed with talent, might be a little rusty.

While all showcased their outdoor skills throughout the previous year, the last time they had played representative indoor hockey was in 2019.

Because of COVID-19 and the school holiday period, they'd not had any team training sessions in the build up either.

"On paper we had a really fantastic team and they've done really well in the past, but I think it was just lack of training and that they hadn't been on a court for a year-and-half, two years really," Cobcroft said as her side finished with two wins and three defeats.

"Because we hadn't had any training, none of the girls were used to playing indoor."

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Bathurst's campaign in division two began well enough on Friday as they defeated Central Coast 3-2, but after that as they were still adjusting to the indoor rules, things got tougher.

Bathurst went down 5-0 to Port Macquarie Hastings then lost close contests against Southern Highlands (2-0) and Metro South West (1-0).

However, as Cobcroft explained, her players did push their rivals in each of those three contest as they began to find their groove.

"The first game we won and the girls played pretty well so we thought it was going to be a pretty successful weekend, but in the end I think what got us was a lack of fitness and also that it did take the girls a little bit to get back into the indoor groove," she said.

"A lot of them were still lifting the ball and not getting low enough, so it really wasn't until our last game that they actually got it back in their heads that 'Okay I've got to get low, I've got to protect my feet, I can't lift the ball.'

"They were definitely competitive in all their games and that Port Macquarie game as well, they were competitive up until half-time, it was nil-all at half-time."

Bathurst's continued improvement and determination was rewarded in their final game of the championships when beating Wagga 3-1.

Cobcroft was happy with the effort of her entire squad, but had some special praise for her goalkeeper.

"It was really good to see them knock a few goals in that last game, especially because they hadn't knocked one in since that first game. It was a good note to end on," Cobcroft said.

"The standout player was definitely our goalie Ellen Dobel, she had a fantastic weekend, she kept us in a lot of our games. She was a reason a lot of those scores were quite close.

"But they all played really well as a team, they all gelled quite nicely and they all played really, really fantastically."

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