Hattie Shand

Hockeyroos defender Hattie Shand is known for her fitness, skill and physicality – and the animals on her family’s farm in South Australia have to take some of the credit.

Back on the farm outside Naracoorte, near the Victorian border, during the COVID-19 lockdown, Hattie used chickens, dogs, sheep, even a horse as training aids, treating them as defenders as she dribbled a hockey ball around them, over them and under them.

“I thought I would have a bit of a laugh while having a run,” Hattie said. “The sheep are very spoiled, hand-reared ones actually.”

Hattie began playing hockey as a nine-year-old in Naracoorte, before moving to Adelaide to board at Scotch College and pursue her sporting dreams.

She represented South Australia every year from U12 to U21 level and also played for the Adelaide Fire in the inaugural Hockey One League.

In 2018, she made her debut for the Australian under-21 team, the Jillaroos, in a series against New Zealand, and made several appearances throughout 2019 and 2020.

She was chosen to train with the Hockeyroos at a national senior squad camp in 2020 and the following year she was awarded a Sport Australia Hall of Fame scholarship.

Called into the Hockeyroos in 2022, Hattie was in the squad that won a bronze medal at the World Cup and she played in all 16 of the team’s 2022-23 FIH Pro League matches, with Australia finishing third.

She was also part of the squad when the Hockeyroos clinched a place at the Paris Olympics by winning the 2023 Oceania Cup series against New Zealand.

Hockeyroos coach Katrina Powell describes Hattie as “a highly competitive and skilful defender who has great physical capability."

At the Paris 2024 Olympics Hattie and the Hockeyroos opened their tournament with three-straight wins against South Africa (2-1), Great Britain (4-0) and the United States (3-0).

A draw with Argentina (3-3) and a win against Spain (3-1) closed the group stage, with the Hockeyroos advancing into a quarter-final against China. Coached by Australian Olympic champion Alyson Annan, China prevailed 3-2 to end the Hockeyroos' campaign.

Away from the hockey field, she is studying for a bachelor of animal science through the University of South Australia and she gets back to help out with those animals on the farm whenever she can.