An increased focus on fitness is already paying dividends for the Goulburn District Hockey Association women's hockey team.
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After a slow start in their first pre-season trial game against North Canberra on Tuesday night, the GDHA women quickly warmed up and, by the third quarter, were playing excellent hockey.
The team's ability to find their best form late in the match, coach Naomi Jones said, was down to the influence of former local rugby league coach, Steve Freebody.
"We just found in the third quarter last year, we always dropped off," Jones said.
"It had a real impact in our game last year, we dropped most of our games in the third quarter, so we decided we need to be fitter to get through it."
The team enlisted Freebody before the pre-season began to improve their fitness, and his impact was clear on Tuesday night at the Goulburn hockey arena.
From the outset, the girls were energetic and enthusiastic. Running hard, they outpaced the older North Canberra side and were able to maintain that speed while smoothing out their passing and tightening up their formations.
"I'm really happy with that [performance]," Jones said.
"They've been working hard in pre-season for the last four or five weeks. Really happy to see it come together, [because] we've got a much younger team this year.
"By the third or fourth quarter, we really started to connect well. I'm really happy with that."
Players across all sports tend to dread the typical pre-season focus on fitness work, but Jones said there had been a "good vibe" from the Goulburn players during their training sessions.
"There's a good vibe, and we just felt that they needed to be a bit fitter so they could get to those 50-50 balls.
"It's helping them gel as a team too."
Though Goulburn's women's team has typically featured a number of teenaged players, this year has seen a much higher than normal influx of young members.
Though less experienced, many of these players are fast, agile, and are learning quickly from the more senior members of the side.
Their presence has Jones excited about the future of women's hockey in Goulburn.
"I think the next three years or so is very exciting," she said.
"It's exciting to see where that will go. The girls before us put a good foundation in, and then hopefully these girls can build on that in the future."
Should the GDHA side maintain a consistent core of players for the next few years, the sheer breadth of talent within the squad will no doubt make them the team to beat in the Hockey ACT competition.
The Goulburn side has one more trial match, against St Pats next week, before the season is scheduled to get underway on March 28.
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