For those who head right down to Albion Park Hockey Membership on a balmy winter’s morning within the small city of Shellharbour in NSW, you’ll probably discover a legend of the sport nonetheless relishing time on the pitch.
It appears to be like just a little completely different today, Dianne concedes she’s both having fun with catching up with buddies and previous teammates or operating round after her six-year-old nice niece who’s inherited her fond love of the sport and the talent to match.
“She appears to be like like she’s going to go fairly properly,” Dianne exclaims.
“The youngsters actually wish to have a muck round after they’re on the turf and we’ve nonetheless obtained a lot of younger ones round enjoying in order that’s good.”
Over 50 years in the past, Albion Park was the place Dianne’s love for the sport flourished, kickstarting a profession that will see the midfielder go on to grow to be one of many greats of girls’s hockey.
As a young person, Dianne made each New South Wales state crew and after a few years performing as among the finest gamers for her state, it was solely a matter of time earlier than she was regarded for the best honour. The best second of her profession arrived with out warning.
“We had been enjoying on the Australian Championships in New South Wales and there was a dinner after they usually named the Australian crew!”
“I didn’t know I used to be even a shot as a result of I didn’t know they had been choosing for the Australian crew.”
Realising her dream was made at simply 20 years of age, Dianne and her membership at Albion Park rallied collectively to lift the funds, which included many raffles, to get her to London.
Her debut on a summer time day within the UK capital in opposition to England in August 1973 stays one in all her fondest recollections.
“Your coronary heart jumps out of your chest, I bear in mind being nervous, actually actually nervous, and simply feeling actually proud,” Dianne remembers of pulling on the inexperienced and gold.
“It by no means modified. Each time I put it on I felt proud to symbolize my nation and I simply needed to do my finest.”
Dianne admits she was fairly a shy participant however six years after her debut in 1979 she was named captain of the ladies’s nationwide crew and on the sphere, she was often called some of the explosive attacking centre halfbacks to grace the sport.
After captaining the Worldwide Federations of Ladies’s Hockey Affiliation crew in Scotland, celebrating 100 years of hockey in Nice Britain, a milestone second got here in 1980 when ladies’s hockey was launched to the Olympic Video games for the very first time in its historical past.
Dianne was named as the primary feminine captain to symbolize Australia in hockey on the Olympics and to prime it off they stood probability to win one of many first Olympic medals.
All the nice Olympic milestones adopted; being named within the Australian crew, receiving their first Olympic uniform… however then got here a dreaded letter.
Notification from the Australian crew that they had been boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
“It was what it was,” Dianne says calmly.
“There was no level getting wired about it as a result of there was nothing we may do about it.”
As a substitute, Dianne and the crew picked themselves up and launched into a tour of the US the place they’d return house undefeated.
The next 12 months, she led Australia to the World Cup in Argentina in 1981. Nevertheless it wasn’t the massive recreation moments that stored Dianne dedicated to the sport for therefore lengthy.
“I performed squash, basketball and golf however the problem of mastering the talent of hockey drew me to the sport.”
“I don’t suppose you ever grasp it, I don’t suppose anybody may ever grasp it. You by no means cease studying and I simply find it irresistible.”
Dianne could not suppose she’s mastered the innate talent of the sport, however she’s actually mastered her standing in Australian hockey.
Awarded legendary standing 14 years after being inducted into Hockey Australia’s Corridor of Fame in 2008, the accolade is bestowed upon a participant who epitomises character, status and sportsmanship and Dianne has actually mastered that.
After retiring from her enjoying profession following the World Cup in 1981, Dianne devoted her skilled life to the sport as a state and nationwide coach and selector – a dedication that noticed her recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1986 for Providers to Hockey.
Her newfound Legendary standing is one other well-deserved accolade, following a adorned profession, Dianne plans to rejoice with buddies and teammates at her native membership in Albion Park, the very place the place it began.
