WHAT can make a player forget they've done a hamstring? What can turn a goalkeeper into a striker? It's the lure of a national medal.
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Bathurst hockey talents Ellyce Bestwick and Georgia Baillie were part of a remarkable Under 15s National Hockey Championships bronze medal play-off match in Darwin last week.
The Bathurst pair and their NSW State team posted a 3-2 penalty shoot-out win over Queensland Gold to finish the tournament in third place.
As neither side was able to score in regulation time and it went to penalties, Bestwick was on the sideline dealing with a hamstring issue.
"I went to slap a ball and strained my hamstring and ended up on the ground, that was right at the end of the game. I got through almost the entire game, but at the end it decided 'Nup'," she said.
"I couldn't watch it [shootout], I was like 'Oh God' I can't watch this. I had my head down for one of them, but then I thought I better watch them because we might actually win here.
"Once they were all in I forgot about [hamstring] and it was just run on to celebrate."
As for Baillie, who plays her club hockey for St Pat's, she also had tense moments in the decider.
She started out in her familiar role as goalkeeper, but for the final quarter of the contest Baillie found herself deployed as a field player.
"She was selected as one of our keepers, but we had three injuries from our field players in that last game so we had to de-kit Georgia and chuck her up in our striker line for our last quarter so we had enough to play," Bestwick said.
"She did really well actually.
"She played awesome in goal before that, she actually got one chance at striker which she definitely gave a crack. It was a good shot on goal, but their goalkeeper was just too good."
While this year's tournament was the second time that Bathurst City talent Bestwick had lined up for the NSW under 15s, it was the first state field assignment for Baillie.
Bestwick was part of a three-player leadership group and as such, spent a number of games as captain during the tournament.
"I've never captained a state side before, so it was definitely a shock, but it was also really good to be able to captain those girls," she said.
"I felt a lot of pressure, but it was a privilege to captain those girls and I definitely feel like it made me play better. I was really happy with how I played."
Both found the conditions in Darwin testing.
"It was very warm, the first couple day was a shock to most of us, coming from Bathurst weather to 90 percent humidity," Bestwick said.
"Some of it was morning games and we had a couple of afternoon games, but it was still burning hot."
The NSW State side placed second in its pool with four wins through five games.
Bestwick and Baillie enjoyed a 5-1 win over Tasmania in their opening game, then victories over ACT (1-0), Victoria Development (7-1) and Western Australian (4-2).
While going down 2-0 to Queensland Gold in its last pool match, NSW had done enough to qualify for the semi-finals.
There they met eventual gold medallists Queensland Maroon, and while fighting hard throughout, NSW suffered a 6-1 loss.
But Bestwick and Baillie still had a chance to finish the tournament with a medal. The side they met in that play-off for bronze was the same Queensland Gold side they lost against two days earlier.
To beat them in a tense shootout - NSW scored with its first two attempts but didn't seal it with a third goal until shot five - was a moment that ranks up there on Bestwick's hockey highlights.
"It was definitely a good match," she said.
"This is the top tournament I've played in, this is probably the best group of girls. It was an awesome experience to travel with them and be with them for two weeks and be able to show everyone what New South Wales is made of.
"I hadn't medalled before, that was the first medal match I'd been in overall, and it was the same for most of the girls. It felt like a grand final, you've got to treat it like that."
Both Bestwick and Baillie will now turn their attention to club duties in the Central West Premier League Hockey competition, while Bestwick will also spent Friday nights in Sydney playing for Ryde.
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