By Marcus Uhe
Few experiences compare to the exhilaration of purchasing new clothing, and the thrill of wearing it at home for the very first time.
The mad frenzy to unwrap the article from its seemingly never-ending plastic packaging, the soft feel of cotton on skin, the crisp folds and unblemished bright, strong colours all captivate the senses in the immediacy of a purchase or acquisition of new kit.
It’s something that even Emerald Hockeyroo Amy Lawton can – or previously could – attest to.
When she and her weary teammates reached the Olympic Village on Tokyo’s Harumi waterfront district in the early hours of the morning ahead of the 2021 Games, Lawton’s first pieces of Olympic green and gold uniform were waiting for her in the room that she was sharing with veteran teammate and Rio de Janiero Olympian, Rachael Lynch.
The then 19-year-old was blinded by the arrival gifts, and made a bee-line for them, suddenly full of life again despite the long transit.
It’s a moment she reflects on ahead of her second Olympic mission with a laugh.
“I just wanted to open it and try it all on, and (Lynch) just said ‘hey, it’s one in the morning, let’s go to sleep – it’s still going to be there in the morning for you to try on and we’ve got training tomorrow, so sleep and then we can open it and it will be exciting tomorrow’” Lawton said.
“Little things like that, you learn and you don’t know as a rookie heading in.”
Now 22, on her second trip to the games, Lawton returns as somewhat of a veteran in the squad, having achieved plenty in her young career already.
Recognised as an emerging star in the hockey world, the dynamic midfielder is seen as a key cog in the Hockeyroos machine, having first taken up the sports at the Casey Cannons when in primary school.
A gifted athlete, sport was always in the Lawton family’s life – her parents are Squash players from Zimbabwe, while Amy’s younger sister Josie is on the cusp of the Hockeyroos squad herself, having just missed the cut for Paris.
Seven of the 16-player squad are off to their first Olympic campaign – including three that are older than Lawton – while she is one of five returning for a second time, and four are on their third trip.
She hopes that her returning status and the lessons learned along the way – from the importance of routine and staying present in the moment, despite the gravitas of the Olympic games, to taking the small opportunities that come your way, both on and off the pitch – will hold her in better stead than when she was the wide-eyed debutant in Japan, eager to soak as much in as she could.
The hardest thing to forget, however, was an unwanted lesson in dealing with heartbreak.
Tokyo started brightly for the Hockeyroos, winning all five group games before the cut-throat nature of tournament play bore its brutal teeth, eliminated by India in the quarter-finals in a shock loss.
“That experience is something I hope to never feel again because of how disappointing it is and that gut-wrenching feeling that you did everything you thought you could, and it wasn’t enough in the end to get over the line, particularly for the more senior girls, who maybe it was their last shot at the Olympics,” Lawton said.
“I think for the girls who were at both events and even more so, for the girls who might be going to their first Olympics now and haven’t medalled at any of the last three or since the golden era, I think all of us are motivated to try to (medal) again.
“Our coach was a part of that and having her driving that, as well as the disappointment of those last few results driving us, I think it’s really important, and we’ve got so many debutants too.
“I think the connection across different generations of players coming together for this one (goal) has lit that fire in the belly from past results, but also added excitement from the debutants heading into these games.”
Lawton already has a Commonwealth Games silver medal in her trophy collection from Birmingham in 2022, and bronze from the 2022 World Cup, when the Hockeyroos defeated Germany in the third-place play-off after losing to eventual champions, the Netherlands, in semi-final.
While not achievements to besmirch, the results are driving the squad to reach even greater heights.
The Hockeyroos were a dominant force at the end of the last millennium, winning gold in 1988, 1996 and in Sydney in 2000.
Since then, it’s been a medal-less five Olympic campaigns for the side, something they are determined to correct.
Current coach, Katrina Powell, a member of the triumphant 1996 and 2000 squads, knows exactly what it takes, and has been with the squad as head coach since 2021, when she stepped in at late notice to coach the team at Tokyo.
The current Hockeyroos are a tight-knit bunch, blending youth, cultures, personalities and experience and basing themselves at the Hockey Australia High Performance Unit in Perth in Perth in the lead-up to Paris.
Grace Young, Tatum Stewart and Claire Colwill will bring the prerequisite vibrancy that comes with a debut Olympic experience, while Lawton and veteran teammate Jane Claxton will be instrumental in the middle of the pitch in orchestrating how the team operates.
In goals, they have one of the best shot-stoppers in the world in Jocelyn Bartram, nominated for FIH (International Hockey Federation) Goalkeeper of the Year award in 2022 and 2023.
Ahead of Paris, Lawton and her teammates are pulling out all the stops to ensure history does not repeat, and to peak at the perfect moment, both physically and mentally.
Initiatives undertaken for the once-every-four-years mission include heat acclimatisation training for the expected gruelling European heat, to the enlisting of renowned mindset coach Emma Murray to fine-tune their mental preparation.
Murray has worked with countless high-performing athletes and sporting teams, most-notably with the Richmond Football Club during their recent dominant era in the AFL, when they won three premierships over a four-year span between 2017 and 2020.
Lawton said her influence has been a “game changer” for the squad.
“We started doing that (mindfulness) post-Tokyo, pre-Commonwealth Games and World Cup” Lawton said.
“Trying to find those little things to help you perform at your best as often as possible is pretty much that whole point of high-performance mindfulness, and how as a team we can work together to achieve that as individuals, but also holistically as a group.
“Big focuses include celebrating each other; when things happen on the field, even if it doesn’t necessarily get the outcome of a goal, which is something that the viewers see as a positive outcome, it could be a good press win, good chase back, all the little things in a game that maybe aren’t recognised broader than within the team itself.
“That’s something that’s really helped us in the last few years.”
An Olympic medal at just 22 years of age would cap a whirlwind few years for Lawton, and see her status in the hockey world reach dizzying heights in the handful of years since moving to Perth as an eager teenager chasing a dream.
The Hockeyroos are under no illusions that there’s a mountain of work to be done, but it’s a challenge they’re tackling-head on.
“It’s hard to predict but you’ve got to focus on what you guys as a team can focus on and control, which I think is something we are now fine-tuning, heading into these games; what our jobs are and what our controllable things are in our way of play, rather than focusing too much on the other teams,” Lawton said.
“We’re really hoping to medal, the Hockeyroos have been working hard and got that fire in our bellies to try and achieve that for ourselves and the country, our families and hockey, all the rest of it.
“I definitely think a medal is on the cards for us and I really hope that we can showcase some of our best hockey at the games in a few weeks.“
Come Saturday 10 August, three years on from finding her first Olympic uniform, maybe the Emerald product will be rushing to hang a gold medal around her neck.
