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RISING Toowoomba hockey star Maddie Staff is definitely going places.

The 16-year-old will have the chance to test her skills against New Zealand and Argentina next February after being named in the Australian under-16 women’s team.

The Aussies will spend 15-days touring through both countries and playing games against local hockey sides.

Maddie has played hockey for 10 years now and is a member of the Rangeville A-grade team, so she has plenty of experience.

But this will be her first opportunity to play in an Australian side and Maddie said she planned to make the most of it. “It was quite a surprise,” she said. “I think all my hard training has paid off. “I was really excited because I thought I deserved it. It was well worth the effort.

“I’ve made a couple of Queensland teams outside of school but there have been no opportunities to make Australia because they don’t go that far.

“It’s going to be really interesting to see other team’s structures and the way they play.”

Maddie is a drag flick specialist and believed that skill was what earned her a place in the Australian team.

Argentina are one of the better users of the drag flick in women’s hockey and Maddie said she was excited to see how her technique matches up.

“I’ll get to see how my drag-flicking is,” she said.

“I scored from five drag-flicks in my last tournament. If I can score against them (Argentina), I’m doing pretty well.”

Maddie said she was eager to pursue a career in hockey and hoped this would be the first of many tours in the green and gold.

“My future goal is to play for the Hockeyroos,” she said.

“I’ve followed it all my life. My family is big into hockey and that got me and my sister into it.

“I definitely want to play the best hockey that I can.”