Nelson's hockey flame continues to fire

Country hockey legend Shayni Nelson, (formally Shayni Buswell) has had her life revolve around hockey since she was young and her passion for the sport has followed from her mother, all the way down to her sons.

Starting hockey at the young age of around three or four, Shayni’s mum became the avenue that opened her up into the world of hockey and she has never looked back since.

“My mum played for Bunbury, she is a life member at the South Bunbury club…playing in the state country team, I played because she played.”

Growing up in Bunbury brought a different pathway for people who have grown up in Perth and the opportunities that presented can vary. Shayni spoke about the challenges she had to overcome coming from a country town.

“I had a really supportive family…I was doing two-to-three trips to Perth, sometimes four every week. We had a good bunch of crew and would car pool together to make it easy on our parents.”

“I don’t think I was too disadvantaged, but it was a lot of really hard work and sacrifices. Bunbury is a real sporting community, and it was a great place to grow up, they were really encouraging for me.”

With the absence of Shayni’s old team, the South-West Strikers, she sees it as being lucky to have grown up in the time where there was an opportunity to keep coming to Perth and play hockey.

She has accumulated nearly 400 All Flags Premier League matches and talked about some of her career highlights that she experienced along the way.

In her long career Shayni has represented Australia and many other teams, playing in countless tournaments, and having success at the highest levels.

When talking about some success that the club saw in 2002, winning the double-double was a big experience to be a part of.

“We won ones and twos men and women on the same day…you can imagine it was a pretty loose party. Everyone experienced a win on that day, and it was a pretty good experience to be a part of.”

Following on in 2002, she was also fortunate enough to represent Australia at the champions trophy.

“It was really exciting…it is like a childhood dream to do it, and it was really humbling to do it. I do get a bit disappointed that I didn’t  go on with it, but it was exciting to play at the highest level you can.”

Whilst playing for then WA Diamonds, Shayni and her team put up a monster run of success, managing to accumulate five Australian Hockey League title wins and two runners-up medals.

“Of my most cherished hockey memories I would have to say it is my Diamonds wins and my club hockey.

“For me, all my best mates are in those teams…I was in the Hockeyroos, but I didn’t  have all my mates with me…sharing the premierships with my friends in the Diamonds makes it my most cherished memories in the sport.”

When talking about the team and everything they achieved, it was clear that these were some of Shayni’s fondest experiences that she had through hockey.

“Our first Diamonds win was in Perth, and that kicked off a seven or eight-year stretch where we just won or came second every year, we just dominated.”

“That first win was awesome in around 2002…I remember I was so excited that I picked up the ball before the final siren had sounded and the opposition were chasing me around trying to get the ball out of hand.”

A big factor that went into the girls managing to maintain this streak of dominance on the turf and managing to get constant wins was the fact that it was mostly the same group each year, and the bond they had was able to carry over into the following years.

“We had the few odd people that would come, and some would retire or move on…but it was the same core group together and we managed to achieve some pretty cool stuff together.”

Another thing the Shayni attributes to the girl’s success was coaching from Kevin Knapp.

“He was the hardest task master with our basics, we would do lots of testing of our basics, we had skill tests that would be done every five or six weeks to test our passing under fatigue and stuff like that.”

“I feel like since we were young, and we had really good basics along with great coaches like Colin Brandis, Neil Hawgood who were our Diamonds coaches during that period and they were really great.”

During this time, Shayni herself was putting up impressive play, winning the Charlesworth Medal (Best & Fairest in the Premier League) in 2004, 2006 and 2008. While this was largely due to impressive play by Shayni, she credits this success to the team.

“It was always better when the team won…I remember playing with some really awesome players that made me look good in the midfield.”

“Me being a midfielder, you need good people around you and I was lucky, and we were pretty good in those years with the club.”

With accumulating so much game time and reaching almost the 400-game mark for her All-Flags Premier League career, Shayni spent time to talk about what has really helped her prolong her career and continue to be able to produce a high standard of play.

“Luckily genetically I’m ok, I keep fit and strong…it is not so much about stick and ball work, it is more like making sure I do strength work and I try to do that around once or twice a week with the trainer.”

Whilst it is impressive that her body can physically keep up with the game, mentally Shayni has never wavered from the sport and playing through her whole life, and getting more involved with the game through other avenues, she talked about maintaining the love for the game.

“I love hanging out with my mates, it gives me a chance to have a break whilst working full-time…my husband still plays hockey and both my kids play, so I enjoy playing and I want to challenge myself.”

“People who have retired, they encourage me to play as long as I can, they always say that your miss it after it’s done…if your body can keep doing it then why not.”

“I still have mates in the team and the young girls keep me young. I want to inspire my kids and they get to see me play, they come every week. Now they are trialling for state teams as well which is cool.”

Having such a great support group around you can keep anyone in an industry or a business for a long time, let alone playing a sport that you have a passion for.

So, it is easy to see how this mateship has kept Shayni going for so long, but even she knows that it will not last forever,

“I am not going to stick around, once I am not playing at a decent standard anymore, I will want to go play in a lower grade and hopefully play with some junior girls and help develop them.”

“At the moment I still feel like I am holding my own within the team and I still really enjoy it.”

With everything that Shayni has on her plate, it is amazing to how she manages to keep up and still pile more on, with the work she does by volunteering at the Junior Skills Academy at UWA.

“I coach and teach at the school I work at and then I volunteer and coordinate the Skills Academy at Uni, so that is one day a week before school.”

“I get our Australian players, state players, Premier Ones men and women players to come down and coach an extra session for the kids and focus on skills.”

“I think I am seeing some improvement from the kids, but one session a week is not enough to improve your skills, but the kids and the parents that are buying into it are improving and it is really rewarding to see that.”

Even with all the work that Shayni puts on her plate, she even talks about hopefully doing more in the future

“I will hopefully get involved in more stuff around Hockey WA as my kids get older, at the moment, my husband is also the President at the Junior Club of UWA, so we volunteer a lot. It is good, but I can see that the kids’ skills have been improving which I enjoy.”

With all the work Shayni does in and outside of hockey, maintaining a balance in life is important and she does attest this to someone important in her life.

“I do have a pretty amazing husband who is a good cook, I have managed to stay pretty relaxed, and I am not uptight…my house is not spotless, I can tell you that, I just have to let that stuff go.”

“I also don’t sleep much either, working pretty late, I am lucky that I can function off six hours sleep, I have supportive family and friends around me.”

In all her experiences, Shayni has learnt so much and been around so many people, but she says that she doesn’t know everything about the game, and it keeps her going.

“I’ve had my husband and my kids around me to help keeping me want to play, my family in Bunbury initially got me started and all my coaches have been amazing.”

“But I am still learning stuff now, which is another reason I keep playing. In the last couple of years at Uni I have had TJ Wickham as a coach, and Daniel Beale and now I’ve got Jeremy Davy and I have had some awesome coaches who challenge me and keep making me learn.”

As Shayni approaches her 400^th All Flags Premier League game, she is sure to continue to excel on the field and off with whatever new endeavours she decides to stack on her plate next.  

By FRASER WILLIAMS