Living outside the Border region has paid dividends for Hayley Hutchinson.
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The Albury-Wodonga Spitfires young gun hails from Ladysmith, outside of Wagga, which permits her to travel to Canberra to play in the Capital League competition.
With no Spitfires women's team this year, Hutchinson trialled for North Canberra Eagles and has played the opening three matches of the season with her new club.
The Eagles were outclassed by Tuggeranong in round one, before falling by a goal to Goulburn and Old Canberrans in the past fortnight.
With strict travel limitations in place for residents within the border bubble, Hutchinson knows she's in a fortunate position to be able to play the sport she loves.
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"They were concerned I was too close to the border and they'd have a problem because ACT has been pretty strict with everything through the hockey centre," Hutchinson said.
"At the moment I'm just happy to get a few games in.
"ACT only put out the first four rounds for the draw because they're not really sure what's going to happen after that.
"They said they'll keep us updated."
Hutchinson was travelling to Canberra two nights a week for club and representative training, but it was reduced to one after Hockey ACT shut down the high performance program.
They were concerned I was too close to the border and they'd have a problem because ACT has been pretty strict with everything through the hockey centre.
- Hayley Hutchinson
"After they announced in January that Albury weren't having a team, some of the girls from ACT reached out and said North Canberra were looking for players and were happy to take on Albury players," Hutchinson said.
"It's been hard because as soon as we started pre-season, all the restrictions came in.
"We only had about a month's worth of training leading up to the season."
Hutchinson has been playing as a striker and through the middle for the Eagles and is enjoying the challenge.
"It's a similar group of girls (to the Spitfires) with a mix of older ones through the back line and younger ones up through the front," she added.
Hutchinson's goal for the shortened Capital League season is to continue to impress selectors and keep herself in representative contention for 2021.
North Canberra takes Central in round four at Carter Field on Saturday.