Indoor hockey: Melville City goalkeeper Erin Judd selected in Australian squad

Judd’s selection follows a successful tour of South Africa in December, during which she earned her first seven caps.

“Two years ago I was named in the under-23 junior development team and then last year, after the nationals in January, I was selected for the tour to South Africa to play in the Four Nations tournament,” Judd said.

“With the Indoor Hockey World Cup coming up in 2018, it was a bit of a trial; the team was basically half and half established and development players.”

Judd built on her performance in South Africa at the Open Indoor Australian Championships in January, helping steer Western Australia to a respectable fourth-place finish.

She is one of 28 women in the squad, which includes four goalkeepers, and will attend a training camp in October to vie for a spot in the Australian indoor team slated to tour Europe in December or January 2017.

The Atwell resident took up hockey while living in Esperance as a four-year-old and said her decision to move to goalkeeper full-time at 14 was a pragmatic one.

“People call me crazy but I do really, really like it; I have the skill to have gone as far on the actual field,” Judd said.

Judd has been playing goalkeeper in both field and indoor hockey for the past decade and has the bruises and battle scars to prove it.

“A couple of years ago I had my arm broken,” she said. “My own player actually hit the ball at me during warm-ups and I ended up playing a half with a shattered bone near my wrist.”

Between indoor and field hockey, Judd finds herself in goals year round. On the rare occasion she is not on the field, she’s on the sidelines coaching.

“I’ve coached the State under-15 indoor side to national titles the last two years,” she said.

The Indoor Hockey World Cup takes place in Argentina in February 2018.