Yet another national tournament hits Shepparton today and hockey lovers across the Goulburn Valley are rejoicing.
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The Australian Country Championships begin today at McEwen Reserve and will play out across the week before culminating with gold medal matches in men's and women's divisions next Sunday.
Squads from Victoria, NSW, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Australian Defence Force will compete in each category, meaning 12 teams comprising the best hockey players in the country will grace the pitches of Shepparton all week.
Shepparton Strikers' Xavier McBain - along with Echuca-Moama products James Thomson, Jayden Gulson and Jorgie Wright - will add another layer of excitement for Goulburn Valley Hockey Association fans when they take to the pitch for their respective Victorian outfits.
"It's really good to just play close to home and to actually have friends and family be able to come and watch us play without having to travel interstate, which is nice," Victoria women's captain Sam Daly said.
"We're hoping to get a few more fans along because of that."
Daly is hoping her side can rise up the standings this season, thanks in part to some local knowledge and training.
"We've been lucky enough to have a few training sessions on the Shepparton field which is a massive advantage compared to the other teams," she said.
"It's a little bit different to what we're used to playing the national championships on because it's a sand-based field not water-based, but for me that kind of goes in my favour because our field up at Albury is sand-based as well.
"The facilities are fantastic here, they've got the two new fields there and the setup of the whole sport complex is really impressive.
"We're quietly confident. We actually finished sixth last year which was quite disappointing, but we've got quite a new team, we've got 11 new players to the team out of 18 which brings with it a bit of excitement and I guess is unpredictable as well, but we're quietly confident that we've got a fair chance of winning this tournament so that's what we're going to be aiming for."
The first national hockey championships in Shepparton in more than two decades will have action aplenty all the way through to Sunday's finals - aside from rest days on Tuesday and Friday - keeping the GVHA contingent busy.
President Cameron Druitt praised the work of Greater Shepparton City Council and Hockey Australia in helping the association secure and host the championships.
"We've been looking forward to this for 12 months now," Druitt said.
"Our volunteers and clubs are obviously right behind this event, we've blocked out our season for two weeks, but that's been well received and it's well and truly understandable to have such an event of this scale."
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