Tahlia Constance, Sarah Askey and Emily Chaffey’s performances at the weekend’s State Under 18 Girls Indoor Championships will see the talented trio donning the blue of NSW.
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The NSW side to contest the National Championships in Goulburn from January 21-25 was named on Tuesday.
All three are no strangers to wearing the colours of their state, representing NSW at the under 18 field nationals this year. Chaffey and Constance were also part of the 18s indoor side for the 2017 nationals.
They all played for different sides on the weekend with Chaffey (Tamworth) featuring for Dubbo, Constance (Armidale) New England and Askey (Armidale) the Tamworth side which finished runners-up in Division 2.
“It was a great result for a side that was just put together at the last minute and only had one 18-year-old,” Tamworth coach Blair Chalmers said.
“To make the final was really good.”
Not that he questioned they had the quality to. It was more a matter of how they came together.
“We only got to train twice before we went away,” he said.
The final was a tight and see-sawing tussle with Goulburn just edging out Tamworth 3-2.
“We scored early then they levelled,” Chalmers said.
“We scored again and they levelled and then they scored late. We conceded a couple of short corners which we probably should have defended better.”
Goulburn was the only side they lost to, racking up wins over Grafton (3-1), Illawarra South Coast 3 (6-1) and Bathurst (3-nil) in their pool games to finish second behind Goulburn, who they went down to 2-1.
They then played some great indoor hockey in the first half of their semi-final against Manning Valley to establish a 4-nil lead they were never headed from as they beat the previously undefeated outfit 4-2.
Chalmers also made note of their performance against South Coast.
“We really played good indoor hockey. I said to the girls after that game they looked like an indoor team,” he said.
Only losing captain Abigail Doolan for next year, Chalmers said the signs are promising.
And the girls are already talking about next year.
Constance’s New England side meanwhile played in Division 1 and after placing second in their pool were beaten by Metro South West 6-4 in their semi-final.
