Off the back of last year’s selection of Emily Smith as the Hockeyroos’ captain, comes the recent announcement of Shelley Watson, another hometown favourite, as the National Indoor Hockey squad captain.

This is a really rare treat to be able to claim both the indoor and outdoor national team captains both from a small country town.

The team arrived in Brussels on January 23, and after their first training they had a team dinner with the announcement of Watson as the team captain.

This is a fantastic honour for her at her third world cup she said. The World Cup will take place in Berlin, from 7-11 February 2018.

Australia will be one of 12 teams in both divisions competing in the fifth edition of the tournament.

They have played lead up games with the first match against White Star of Belgium, National Champions, winning 10-2.

They then played two further games winning one and losing one.

They said they have a little bit to work on but are confident they can be successful again at this world cup.

The squad contains an exciting mix of experienced players in addition to some very talented young players who have come through the junior ranks and development tours in recent years. The squad includes ten players who played in the successful 2015 Indoor World Cup campaign.

Head Coach Stewart Fenton said, “I am so excited by the quality of this squad and I have really enjoyed working with the players over the last 12 months as we headed into the World Cup.”

The squad came together in Canberra mid last year, for a three-day selection camp where the final team of 12 was selected.

You can follow their games on the Hockey ACT website or send the team a message of support on the ACT Hockey facebook page.