12-year old Canberra girl Eden Morrissey said she held back tears when she found out that she’d been picked in the Southern Country Pride Girls 12s team to play at the 2019 NSW City v Country tournament.
“My friend Kirby said that the teams were being announced so we looked on the Oztag website and I saw my name and I was just so excited,” Morrissey told Oztag Australia.
“I felt very proud of myself and I was almost about to cry, it was amazing.”
Morrissey has been playing Oztag locally at Calwell in Canberra and for ACT for several years now, but said 2019 has been her best season yet.
“I feel like this State Cup was probably my best year, I was really proud of myself. I trained really hard and I trusted myself that I was good enough to do different things. My coach was also really good this year, she taught me a lot,” she said.
The 12-year old will play alongside ACT teammates Kaitlyn Arnold, Lily Quigley, Meaghann Scott and Sienna Bryant in the Pride team picked from the best Oztag players in all regional areas south of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
“There’s going to be so many different experiences, playing with new people. I’m excited to meet the girls from Shellharbour and Wollongong and hopefully we make lots of new friends,” Morrissey said.
“I guess we’ll just have to meet together and train whenever we can. I think we’ll have lots in common because we all love Oztag and then the coaches will help bring us together as one team.”
While Morrissey is no stranger to representative Oztag, the young star knows the City v Country tournament will be a big step up.
“It’s going to be a lot different to playing for ACT. I need to keep fit over the next few months and you’re going to have to move fast and keep the game going.
“You’ll need to run onto the ball, run straight and hard and stay focussed in all the matches.”
Southern Country Pride will take on Northern Country Knights, Southern City Seahawks and Western City Scorpions in a round robin tournament on the Central Coast in June.
“I’m excited to play the Scorpions because they have the Baulkham Hills girls in their team.
“Knights will also be really good because they have the Central Coast girls so I’m excited to see how we go against them.”
While Morrissey knows the competition will be tough, she’s confident her side can leave the Central Coast with some silverware.
“I think we can win, hopefully.
“It would be amazing to win and it would show that all of us are really good Oztag players and that we know how to play well together as a team.”