Noah Pitt and Chris Taggart's efforts at the state CHS boys hockey championships in Albury will see them don NSW colours next month.
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The Farrer pair were following the carnival named in the CHS side to play in a Tri-Series tournament against Combined Independent Schools (CIS) and Combined Catholic Colleges (CCC).
Their selection underlined a strong showing from the Dane James-managed side.
They finished third after going down to Sydney East 3-nil in their semi-final.
It is the second consecutive year Pitt has made the NSW side, and James said from the first game the selectors were looking at him.
"He was a standout for us again," he said.
The North West captain, he was adjudged their players player by a fair margin.
"He's just got such a good read of the game," James said.
He utilised Pitt as a bit of "a jack of all trades", playing him up front, in the middle and even throwing him down the back at times in an effort to try and manage his fatigue "because he just gives 110 per cent for 60 minutes".
Taggart was also an instrumental figure in North West's strong performance. He had some really good passages of play over the carnival James said, as did his brother Ryan. James pushed them into the middle when Pitt was off or at the back to control things.
Reaching the semi-finals matched James' expectations, with the majority of the side returning from the one that placed sixth last year.
"With the guys I had I felt like we could make the semi-finals," he said.
"We only just missed out last year on goal difference."
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It again though came down to their final pool game. Going into the clash with Sydney West they needed to "win big" to finish ahead of South Coast in their pool.
They ended up winning 10-nil to finish a goal to the better than they required.
James said the semi-final was "a really tough game". North West's cause wasn't helped by injuries with Fynn Eastwood ruled out after copping a knock to the head in an earlier game and Taggart rolling his ankle in the previous game.
"He did play some minutes but he wasn't able to really run," James said.
That was compounded when Ryan [Taggart] picked up a groin injury early on, which meant he wasn't able to operate at 100 per cent capacity.
"We basically finished the semi-final with no bench players," James said.
"It was very hard to match it against a quality team."
One of the highlights of the carnival was a draw with Hunter. They were the only side that managed to stay with the eventual champions and twice came from behind.
"The boys played out of their skin," James said.
Nine of the 14 were backing up from the state under-18s championships the previous weekend, and what was for the Tamworth contingent a disappointing campaign.
There was some good news to come out of the weekend though on a selection front with Pitt, McGill and fellow Frogs Lachlan Butler and Nick O'Connor named in the Athlete Acceleration Program (AAP) squad for 2019-20, along with New England's Nathan Czinner, Rohan Lawrence, Jake McCann and Kieran Wicks.
