Hockey heroes on home duty

IT’S not all about the international stage for Tasmania’s Commonwealth Games hockey gold-medal winners Eddie Ockenden and Jeremy Edwards.

The Gold Coast Games stars still call Tassie home — some of the time — and retain strong allegiances to the local clubs that gave them their starts.

Both will see local Premier League action this weekend — Edwards with OHA and Ockenden with North-West Graduates.

Kookaburra kingpin Ockenden is now widely tipped to succeed Mark Knowles as the national team’s captain.

THE plaudits keep coming for Australian sharpshooter Sam Kerr, who has been named one of five finalists for the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year award.

Kerr has been named along with Denmark’s Pernille Harder, England’s Lucy Bronze, Dzsenifer Marozsan (Germany) and Lieke Martens (Netherlands) for the gong, to be awarded on May 22.

“I guess it’s pretty crazy to think out of the whole world there’s only five players been nominated,” said Kerr.

“There are so many great players that I look up to and I don’t put myself in the same sentence as them, so obviously it’s a huge honour and a pretty surreal feeling to be honest.”

The 24-year-old Kerr has been in dominant form for the national women’s team and only last week led the Matildas to the final of the women’s Asian Cup, where they went down in a disappointing 1-0 loss to Japan.