Midfielder Spence has re-committed to the national program and hopes to regain her place in the Hockeyroos with a starring role in this week’s Australian Hockey League.

“Spencey is pushing hard for national selection,” Carr said.

“She has thrown her name back in the hat in the selection arena and I imagine there will be a number of retirements from the Hockeyroos following the Olympics so it is a good opportunity for her if she plays well in the AHL.”

Carr said the benefits of having Tasmanians in national teams are demonstrated by the likes of Eddie Ockenden, Tim Deavin and Josh Beltz in the Kookaburras.

“We don’t have the luxury of a number of senior squad members so it’s difficult for Tasmanian women’s hockey.

“The boys’ success has come through really hard work plus a number of senior players. That’s where we would like to be and we are in the process of developing that.

“We’re used to kids wanting to talk about Eddie and Tim but now Josh seems to be flavour of the month and it’s good to see our young players spoken about like that. The kids really look up to them.”

Carr said several female Tasmanian athletes have been identified at junior national level including Maddie Murphy, who is hoping to go to the junior world cup in Chile at the end of the year, and her state under-21 teammates Eliza Westland and Ruby Haywood.

With Spence and Hannah Richardson as co-captains and Jess Tremayne and Sarah McCambridge sharing the vice-captaincy, the Van Demons are in good shape ahead of the AHL, which begins in Perth on Thursday.

“We’ve put in some hard yards in the last few weeks and the girls are coming along with the process we want to put in place,” Carr said.

“Our aim is to be competitive. We want to restrict the opposition from scoring and take our opportunities when they are presented.”

Van Demons: Ash Arthur, Eleanor Brennan, Brigit Ikin (NWG), Steph Blackwell, Holly Bonde, Tayla Britton, Amelia Spence, Jess Tremayne, Eliza Westland (Derwent), Nicole Geeves, Ruby Haywood (D’backs), Maddie Hinton (Uni), Jemma Kenworthy, Sarah McCambridge, Madeleine Murphy (OHA), Blair Patten, Hannah Richardson (Canterbury).