With a broad smile, Rosa Fernig (24) stepped back onto the Orange training field this week. After a summer without a tournament, the Bossche defender is enjoying her return to the selection, determined to do everything she can to never miss another tournament.
After the first training block on Monday morning, with a warm autumn sun over the field, Fernig talks from the stands about her new energy. About her move to Amsterdam and the joy of being back with the group. “I’m not new, I’ve known everyone for three years,” she says with a laugh. Still, she felt slight nerves on the bike this morning. ‘I’m happy to be back. It really sucked when I heard I wasn’t allowed to go to the European Championships.’
Den Bosch’s agile defender would rather not talk about that moment. But she understands better than anyone that setbacks are part of the game. Since her transfer from the Dutch Junior Team (where she became world champion in April 2022 as captain), she has not played a tournament with the Dutch team. In hindsight, she understands that she was not ready for the next step during the 2023 European Championships. Her reserve role at the Paris Olympics, she has since learned to appreciate as well. But missing last summer’s European Championships still hurts.
Rosa Fernig. Photo: Willem Vernes
‘It was really a bummer for myself’
National coach Raoul Ehren did not dare to take her on. She struggled with injuries her second half of the season and although she was medically fit for the tournament in the summer, the national coach wondered if she could play five games in eight days. ‘I had hoped I would be allowed to go,’ Fernig told me. ‘I’ve basically been working toward it for the past few years. And hoped that I could make the step to play a tournament once. So it was really a bummer. It was tough and shitty.’
When the European Championship selection was shared in the Orange group app and Fernig didn’t see her name on it, she made other plans. She enjoyed her time with her family in Hungary and was the nicest aunt to her one-year-old nephew. ‘It was nice to get away from it all. Needed it to distance myself. The TV was hardly on either.’
Whether she agreed with the national coach’s choice or not, she knows the struggles in the second half of the season did not help. Fernig injured her ankle and suffered tendonitis. ‘It was tougher than I thought beforehand. A lot of people said it was a tricky injury, which turned out to be true.’
From zero to one hundred
So she missed the EHL gold at her home club and watched from the sidelines at Oosterplas for months. Until the playoffs, where she even accounted for a goal in the national final against SCHC. ‘I went from zero to a hundred. But I wanted to compete. No matter what. But because of that there was no build-up in my load capacity. Moreover, the Pro League came right after that. That was all not very ideal,’ she looks back. ‘But I wouldn’t have done it any other way.’
Rosa Fernig after her goal in the national final. Photo: Willem Vernes
In a personal conversation with the national coach, Fernig was given an explanation. Moreover, she knew that she was immediately welcome back in the Orange training group after the EC. ‘I immediately felt the motivation and urge to prove that I could still get something out of it. It is also positive, he could not have said it,’ she says. Raoul told me what he thought of me, how I was doing, what could be different and better. Just small points for improvement. Defensively and fitness in general.’ Laughs, “I like to attack, but then I shouldn’t forget my defensive job.
Fernig made his debut as a fourteen-year-old brat – nota bene under Ehren – with Den Bosch. She went through all the youth selections without any problems and as captain with the Dutch Junior Team she grabbed the World Cup gold. Everything always went smoothly for her. But with the big National Team her real breakthrough is still some time away. Mentally it is tough, but it makes you stronger,’ says Fernig. ‘Playing a tournament one day would really feel like a reward for me.’
Mentally it’s tough, but that’s what makes you stronger. ‘Playing a tournament someday would really feel like a reward for me.
How she’s going to make sure she never misses a tournament again? A grin appears on the Brabant native’s face. ‘I do have to use my qualities that I have. And keep confidence in that. Work on the points I need to get better at. And on my taxability. Of course, I’ve been injured more than once in the past. I just need to stop missing so much. Become more stable. Make the foundation better and more solid,” she said.
Photo: Willem Vernes
Falling and getting up in Orange
But most importantly? ‘Maybe it sounds silly, but I really enjoyed getting on my bike this morning. I hoped I would feel that way. I want to get better, but I also want to keep enjoying myself,’ she says. ‘That’s really in my character, too. I’m better off doing something else if I don’t enjoy it anymore.’
The World Cup awaits in 10 months, and Fernig is looking forward to it with confidence. ‘I want to be able to look in the mirror at the end of the day and say: I gave everything. The result can be good or bad, but I want to be proud of how I developed. I had that feeling last summer and now I know that I learn from it when something doesn’t go the way I planned. Falling and getting up is part of my path in Orange.‘
by Hockey.nl
