Hockey NSW impressed with overall abilities at under-13 boys and girls state selection trials in Port Macquarie

Port Macquarie-Hastings Hockey Association duo Lillianah Williams and Emersyn Smith are right in the mix for selection when the final teams are announced on Tuesday.

Hockey NSW pathway manager Richard Willis was impressed with what he saw from all 45 girls who vied for a spot in the team on Saturday and Sunday.

Williams and Smith would not be out of place in the side.

"The teams aren't finalised until Tuesday at 3pm, but both of them would definitely fit in," he said.

"They're both in contention and there's still a little bit of discussion to be had; (but) it's all positive from our end around both of those girls.

"They're engaging athletes, are both quite fit and had good ball carry (at the weekend)."

Willis admitted the evenness of the trialists was the main difference from this year to last year.

"The evenness is probably the thing for us this year," he said.

"It's not that they're any better or worse than last year's squad, but there weren't any top outstanding ones and there were no ones that didn't look like they belonged.

"The quality of the whole 45 (girl) athletes was very pleasing and made the selection job very difficult."

Hockey NSW also stated they would be looking to return to Port Macquarie next year on a date to be confirmed.

PMHHA president Simon Thresher said it was again pleasing to showcase their facility and what it was capable of holding.

Now they want to expand on sports tourism in the area to potentially host other state title events and the first step in that process will be the construction of a new clubhouse.

"We have DA approval for the new clubhouse and signed the funding papers last week," Thresher said.

"We'd love to have it available before the end of next season, but it is likely to be 2021."

That would allow the association to host other events such as the Australian Country Championships and under-15 state titles along with men's masters events.

"Generally speaking we can't host most national level competitions as they require water-based fields," Thresher said.

But that didn't mean they weren't hopeful of making progress so that was another option long-term.

For that to happen, the association would have to rip up one of the existing fields to lay the infrastructure underneath, but that was dependent on securing the required funding for the project.

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