Casuarina junior Madison Fitzpatrick to play big role in Women’s Hockey World Cup
A Northern Rivers superstar has graduated to become a standout member of Australia’s Hockeyroos squad. Now she is stepping into the spotlight as she chases a World Cup, Commonwealth and Olympic Games medal.
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For the next two months Casuarina hockey junior Madison Fitzpatrick will be living out of a suitcase.
On July 1 she will be lining up for Australia at her second FIH Hockey World Cup and only weeks later will be gunning for gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
The 25-year old has been involved in the Hockeyroos squad since she was just 18, but with a crop of experienced legends retiring she says it’s time to step into the spotlight.
Australia stalwarts like Rachael Lynch and Edwina Bone have moved on with Fitzpatrick now the sixth most capped player in the squad heading to the Netherlands for the Hockey World Cup.
As the Hockeyroos squad goes through transition Fitzpatrick is now tasked with graduating from being a young hotshot to a mature leader in the Australian sporting landscape with a World Cup and Olympic Games under her belt.
Her performances are now key for the Hockeyroos new generation to reach the ultimate objective of gold at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
“When I first made it to a World Cup I was just happy to be at a major tournament I was just stoked to be there,” she said.
“I am older and more experienced, I’m more focused on winning as a team. There’s definitely been a bit of a shuffle where we had four debutantes in our recent games in New Zealand.”
When she began her Hockeyroos career she took tips from legends like Angie Lambert, Jodie Kenny and worked up an on-field relationship with current captain Brooke Peris.
She has now gone from the sponge soaking up all the knowledge from the experienced players to a tutor and teacher herself.
During the recent trans-Tasman series Fitzpatrick saw a debutant was nervous. She said to her “don’t worry, my first touch for Australia I pushed it over the sideline”.
The debutant went and did the same, to a chorus of support from Fitzpatrick and the team.
She believes her experience as a teenager at Tweed Hockey and Casuarina Hockey club have primed her for the next two years where she hopes to gain a Commonwealth and Olympic Games medal as a fully fledged senior member of the team.
“It was at Casuarina where I shifted from doing it for fun and turning competitive,” she said.
“When the squad announcement came in for the World Cup I got so many messages from people back home and Hockey Tweed supports me and all the communities give me so much love.”
A decade ago in between her maths homework and school training sessions Fitzpatrick was playing in state championships and being touted as a future star from her stomping ground in the Tweed Hockey circuit.
The 25-year old thinks back to her time as a teenager and has one message for her before she prepares to jet off to Amsterdam for yet another World Cup.
“To that little girl I would say it’s all worth it, the training, the sacrifice and the Saturday wake ups at 5am,” she said.
“You lose a lot of people with friends moving away and teammates giving up the sport and you get tempted to go down to a similar path.
“To that 13-year old girl I say, ‘don’t worry, it’s all worth it’.”
The FIH Women’s Hockey World Cup kicks off on July 1 before the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England on July 28.
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