When putting her hand up to keep goals for Burnie High School in 1955, Judith Burgess couldn't have imagined the career she would forge.
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Sixty-four years later, she has been inducted into the Hockey Australia Hall of Fame after a 23-year career spanning 17 years of Tasmanian representation and 22 games in national colours.
Converting from basketball to hockey due to a shortage of players, a young Judith Humphries as she was then known, was in the Tasmanian side just a year later.
"In 1956, Tasmania were asked to play England in Hobart and because the current goalkeeper for Tasmania wasn't available, they asked me to fill in and I cemented my spot from there on," she said.
It was there her first career highlight occurred, as the fresh-faced 17-year-old was clapped off the field in recognition of her efforts, something that also happened on an international stage years later.
"In 1970, we were playing in Johannesburg against South Africa and once again, I must have played very well because I was again clapped off the field."
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
Describing herself as a fearless devil on the field and someone whose job it was to just "keep the ball out of the net - legally," Burgess first made the Australian team in 1959 alongside fellow Tasmanian, Lesley Boon.
"I remember for some reason, we were travelling back to our hotel by tram and I wasn't standing on the floor of the tram. I was standing about two or three feet higher, I was that high on the fact that I'd made the team."
Despite her years of representation, the prestigious honour is one that still surprised the 80-year-old, who instantly rang her daughter in tears.
"I was gobsmacked. I received a phone call from Melbourne wanting my email address and next thing I got an email stating that I was going to be inducted.
"When I was talking to my daughter I burst into tears and she asked 'what are you crying for mum?' and I said 'I don't know', I was just so overwhelmed with what was happening.
"I still can't believe it because technically when you think about it, I'm now up in the same league as people like Ricky Ponting. It's these big sportspeople's names that are up there and I'm there with them now and I don't feel like I should be.
"I just played a game of hockey for 13-14 years and thoroughly enjoyed myself."
Spending her retirement scoring for Riverside Cricket Club of a Saturday, a role she's held for the past 15 seasons, Burgess only has one regret from her career, not playing on Wembley Stadium.
"England had invited Australia to play at Wembley on March 14, 1970, and we arrived in England and they came to us and said the Badminton Horse Trials had been on and the ground wasn't suitable.
"We asked if they could at least take us to Wembley so we could walk on it as we've come from the other side of the world and they couldn't, so I've never been there."