Claire Messent, pictured during last year’s Australian Hockey League season, is hoping to use this year’s competition as a springboard back into the national squad.By Marc McGowan
CLAIRE Messent plans on this month’s Australian Hockey League (AHL) being the first step in her bid for selection in the 2012 London Olympic Games.
The Berwick-raised athlete represented her country for the first time at the Four Nations tournament in 2006 before being a late call-up to Australia’s 2007 Champions Trophy squad in Argentina.
But Messent, 23, has not been sighted at international level since – other than an appearance at the Tri-Nations indoor hockey event in London last December.
The Victorian Vipers star hopes all that changes when selectors name this year’s Champions Trophy side after the AHL finishes in April.
“I’ve mostly been working towards playing well in this AHL because this is the crucial time,” the striker-midfielder said.
“We did deserve the seventh place we got last year because we didn’t win the games we had to.
“But this year we have a really promising team and we’re all quite excited to get started.”
The Vipers’ campaign began last Friday night, while the Victorian men’s team, the Vikings, hits its first ball in anger this Saturday.
Messent is representing the Vipers for the fifth straight year and is one of the more experienced members of the side.
“We (the senior group) have to have an impact on each game and I suppose we can’t hide – we have to deliver each week,” she said.
“I quite like that, but I think it’s important not to think you can do it all yourself.
“It’s a role we embrace because we really just want to improve and show Australia that Victoria is one of the teams to be reckoned with.”
Messent is among seven Vipers, including Rachael Lynch, Renee Trost, Sarah O’Connor, Stacia Joseph, Kary Chau and Danielle Schubach, in contention for the Champions Trophy, which is in Sydney from 11 to 19 July.
“I want to be up with the top goalscorers (in the AHL) and my ultimate goal is to be selected for the Hockeyroos – it’s kind of now or never,” she said.
“I have been given opportunities and I think other people need opportunities as well and they’ve equally deserved it.
“Now, because of the retirements (since the Beijing Olympic Games) and the new Olympic cycle, I think it’s all quite even again.
“Whoever takes their opportunities and does their best will hopefully be rewarded. I’m not the type of person who gets jealous, but it does make you work harder.”
Messent rates her Champions Trophy experience as one of her career highlights, alongside her State League One team Hawthorn’s inaugural premiership last September.
“That was awesome. We had a strong side and we found out that our club, in its 80-year history, had never won a women’s premiership,” she said.
Messent earned player-of-the-match honours after scoring two of her team’s three goals, including the match-winner inside the final 10 minutes.
The commerce student relocated to North Melbourne last year, but still regularly comes home to Berwick to see her parents, Sarah and Barry, who she said have been a huge support, and her horse, Luke.
The Vipers play Tasmania at the State Netball and Hockey Centre (SNHC) in round two of the AHL on Saturday and Sunday from 3pm and 1pm respectively.
The SNHC will host women’s AHL matches every weekend, bar one, until the grand final on 5 April.
