Renee Taylor playing for the Hockeyroos this week at the World Cup in London

Everton Park’s Renee Taylor may be playing for the Hockeyroos this week at the World Cup in London aged just 21, but she was far from a hockey prodigy as a teenager.

Renee Taylor playing for Australia. Picture Sarah Reed

Everton Park’s Renee Taylor may be playing for the Hockeyroos, a household name on the Australian sporting landscape, but it has taken some work for her to get there.

Taylor, 21, from the Commercial Hockey Club, was not a hockey prodigy as a teenager.

Far from it.

Indeed she did not make her first state under age side until under-18 level. Yet within 18 months of that achievement she was a Hockeyroo, a rare bird in that she played for Australia before she represented the Queensland seniors.

Taylor — a Gold Coast Commonwealth Games silver medallist — believes that the setbacks she ­received during her early career in not ­making representative teams steeled her for the challenges ahead.

“Because I did not made those (junior representative sides) I had to really work really hard to make my first Queensland side,’’ the Everton Park State School past student said.

“The disappointment made me want to work harder. It is hard work.

“If it was easy, everyone could do it.

“There are times when you are sore and tired and you might not want to do it (train). But standing on the podium makes it worth it at the end of the day.

“I have a great life. I would not want to do anything else at the moment.

“There is still so much to achieve.’’

Taylor, also a past student of Clayfield College who plays with the Commercial club, was always going to play hockey. She was born into a hockey family and has the fondest of memories ­attending matches with her father Graham, mother Sonya and older brother Jared, himself an accomplished representative indoor and field hockey player.

The hockey World Cup starts in London this week and continues untril July 21.