It’s been an extraordinary ascension for midfielder Holly Gilbar who made an impressive Hockey One League debut as the Tassie Tigers earned their first points of the campaign in round one of the Liberty Hockey One League on Saturday.
After failing to secure points in 2023, the Tigers came from two goals down in front of a strong home crowd to secure a 3-3 draw with the NSW Pride, before the visitors secured the bonus point with a 3-1 penalty shootout win.
The Liberty Hockey One League and playing against her Paris Olympic heroes such as Mariah Williams and Great Britain’s Hannah Martin were possibly the furthest thing from Gilbar’s mind as little as six months ago.
The 28-year-old started the year playing club hockey while working as a school teacher in Toowoomba, some 2,339 kilometres from her eventual destination of Hobart and the Tassie Tigers program.
The inaugural goal scorer for Australia at the Hockey5’s World Cup in Oman and a former Australian Indoor Hockey and Australian Country representative, Gilbar reflects that she was starting to look around for a new challenge.
“In the last year, I have been lucky enough to travel to three different countries, representing Australia in three forms of hockey,” Gilbar reflected.
“Competing at the high level can become quite addictive and you find yourself chasing that next challenge.”
Barely four months ago, Gilbar made the brave decision to leave her job and she linked up with University Hockey Club in the Tasmanian Premier League, starring as they rocketed up the table to finish runners-up.
“Returning back home after those international tournaments, I found that I was falling into a routine and losing a bit of my spark for hockey,” Gilbar admitted.
“Hockey One was never really something that was on my radar however after talking to my coach in Toowoomba, he suggested that a move down to Tasmania could present my next challenge.”
“The idea was to play in Hobart, experience something new and if a spot in the Tigers came along with that, then that would be the cherry on top.”
Despite showing strong club form, Gilbar initially missed selection in the Tigers squad of twenty-five athletes but was offered the opportunity to train with the squad.
“I received a call saying that while I had impressed in the Hobart competition, I would need to pay my dues, and if I stuck it out then I might have a shot at being a member of the Tigers in 2025.”
“While it would have been easier to stay in Queensland…I knew that if I was going to continue to improve and challenge myself, then I needed to give myself the opportunity to be in a high-performance environment, and luckily enough for me, a spot opened up.”
“My effort and performance at training was deemed as enough for me to be officially added to the Tigers squad for 2024.”
After making the cut for two preparation matches against HC Melbourne, Gilbar admits it was a nervous wait to see if she’d earned an official Liberty Hockey One League debut.
“I was glued to my emails all morning (and)… to see my name on the list for our Hockey One opener made all of the challenges in the lead-up worth it.”
“It was amazing to finally step onto the field with the girls for our first game, especially in front of a home crowd and pretty surreal to be playing with and against some players who are considered the best in the world.”
The Tigers were forced onto the backfoot, before a converted field goal from Sarah McCambridge drew them level at 3-3, whilst Dutch import Gitte Michels scored and struck the woodwork in regular time.
“We knew coming into the game that we would be the underdogs, but after McCambridge levelled the scores, there was a belief across the whole squad that we had the ability to take out the match.”
“Whilst we were happy to come away with points from our first match, we are going to continue to build across the coming weeks to get some wins under our belt and hopefully secure a home finals berth.”
“As our co-coach Tim Strapp likes to say ‘this tournament is a marathon, not a sprint’ and we will definitely be challenged next week against Perth.”
“Going into this match, we will continue to build and know that when we stick to our processes, we are a force to be reckoned with.”
As this new challenge continues, Gilbar admits she couldn’t have reached the goal of playing in arguably the world’s strongest women’s hockey competition without the support of many in her corner.
“It has been quite a journey for me to become a Tassie Tiger but none of this would have happened without the support of my employer Downlands College and the Toowoomba Hockey community, as well as the heartfelt welcome that I have received from everyone down here in Tasmania, particularly Tasmanian University Hockey Club who took a chance on this newcomer.”
“Finally, chasing that next challenge can become a costly venture so there is no way that I could have realised any of my achievements without the backing of my personal sponsors and supporters, namely Dougies Donuts, JMC Hockey and most importantly the unwavering support of my family.”
Gilbar’s focus has quickly turned to rehabilitation and learning from their season opener, as she prepares to match up on Dutch 2-time World Player of the Year Eva Drummond and the Perth Thundersticks star-studded side this Sunday (5:30pm AEDT).
Hockey One
