The Bachelor Australia contestant Elise Stacy.
Camera IconThe Bachelor Australia contestant Elise Stacy. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Former Hockeyroo Elise Stacy underestimated other personalities on The Bachelor Australia

Sara FitzpatrickEastern Reporter

MORE: The Bachelor: Heartbreak for former Perth Hockeyroo Elise Stacy as she misses out on Matty J’s love

SINGLE and on the cusp of 30, Elise Stacy took the plunge and auditioned for The Bachelor Australia.

After all, the former Hockeyroo told herself, dating is an unconventional process these days.

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“My dad and brother freaked out and my sister got really excited, so I was given two ends of the spectrum,” the Cottesloe resident said.

“My best friends told me: ‘Go do it, the one thing you’ll have to promise is not to get too drunk at the cocktail parties’.”

Stacy’s objective was to find a witting, charming and loyal partner, but she also had personal goals to strike.

“One was to do things I wouldn’t normally do, so I often thought: ‘Put yourself in this situation and just go with it’,” she said.

“The other was to be myself – it’s reality TV, but if you are true to yourself and who you are then you can’t be misconstrued and that was my other objective.”

Stacy joined the Hockeyroos in 2010, moving from home city Adelaide to Perth.

“When I was interviewed for the show, I was asked how I would go living with a group of girls and I responded: ‘easy-peasy, I’ve done it in my hockey career’, but I underestimated that,” she said.

“I was surprised at how some people treated others in the house. We had such an array of different personalities and that really caught me off-guard at the beginning and that’s why I sat there like a deer in the headlights for a while.

“My time as a Hockeyroo did help prepare me for the show as I’m quite a resilient person: I can roll with the punches and I know it’s not all fairytales and roses and there are some tough times.”

What advice does the hockey star-turned marketing executive offer women going on the show?

“You have to be ready for the unknown and relinquish any kind of control that you have in your normal life – this experience doesn’t suit everyone,” Stacy said.