It's shaping up to be a busy start to the new year for Tamworth hockey star Ehren Hazell as he switches from outdoor to indoor mode.
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Following on from a hectic end to 2019, which saw him represent Australia at the Sultan of Johor Cup and suit up for the victorious NSW Pride in the inaugural Hockey One competition, Hazell will line up for both the NSW opens and under-21s at the Australian Indoor Hockey Festival in January.
Starting on January 4 and running through to Australia Day, the three week festival will encompass the opens, under-21s, under-18s, under-15s and under-13s male and female championships.
Hazell has been named in the Blues side for the opens championships, which will be held from January 4-7. NSW will field two teams with Hazell's former Workies team-mate Brandan Horner, who earlier this month toured Austria with the Australian side, to feature for the State side.
It will be a quick turnaround for the striker with the under-21s championships commencing two days after the opens wrap up.
The top goal-scorer for NSW at this year's championships, and the second highest overall for the tournament, he will play for the State team while New England's Jake McCann and Darby Chalmers will line up for the Blues.
The opens and men's sides were finalised following the weekend's Open State Championships at Goulburn, where New England fell just short of the silverware in Division 2, going down to Orange 4-3 in the final.
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Playing in Division 1, Tamworth meanwhile beat Central Coast 7-1 in their play-off game to finish seventh and ensure they avoided relegation.
After winning promotion last year coach Andrew Farmilo said that was their "sole goal".
He thought they "did pretty well" all things considered.
"We scraped up a team. Because we got into Division 1 this year we knew we had to get a team," he said.
"A few of the guys hadn't played indoor before and we had to mix some positions around."
They were given a late boost with Hazell a bit of a surprise inclusion after not being named for the Pride.
Farmilo said he had an inkling that he might be available when he didn't play the semi-final and they won convincingly.
He was a very handy addition.
Farmilo also thought Blake Abra and Toby Climpson particularly "did well".
"They hadn't really played indoor before so it was a bit of a learning curve for them," he said.
The opens and under-21s selections comes a week after New England's Charlotte Portell, Tom Ball, Archie Clarke, Elliot Clarke, Lennon Neilson and Tamworth's Mitchell Scott were named in the under-13s sides - Portell the Lions' girls, Ball and Archie Clarke the Stars boys, and Elliot Clarke, Neilson, and Scott the Lions boys sides.
