If the Australian Hockeyroos can claim gold in this year's World Cup, Commonwealth Games and Champions Trophy, maybe a ticker-tape parade isn't out of the question. But in Crookwell?
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"We have a yearly festival in Crookwell, called the Potato Festival, where the main street is shut off,'' says Hockeyroos representative Emily Smith.
"So it'd be pretty funny to come home on the back of a hay truck showing off our medals."
Crookwell, in the Southern Tablelands, doesn't just grow spuds - it has a long history of producing hockey internationals.
With a population of about 2000, Crookwell currently boasts two Australian Hockeyroos representatives - Smith and Kellie White.
There's actually three in the 'Crooker Clang', as Hockeyroos teammates have dubbed them, given Mathillda Carmichael's father was born and raised there, too.
"We let Matilda claim she's Crookwellian, so she's one of the Crooker girls, too,'' says White, laughing.
Smith says: "[Teammates] always joke about how we're attached at the hip, but it's because we're so comfortable with each other, we've known each other our whole lives and we're great friends. It makes sense that we stick together."
Stick together indeed, no pun intended, but hockey is in Crookwell's blood.
Crookwell Historical Society records show there's previously been 23 Australian hockey representatives, all home-grown in the region, going back as far as Austin 'Sam' Seaman in the 1920s.
Crookwell enjoyed a golden age of hockey during the 1950s and 60s. Les Stephenson, Desmond Spackman and John McCormack represented Australia and are now exclusive members of the NSW Hall of Fame.
Spackman, considered the world's best defender during his prime when he represented Australia at the 1956 and 1960 Olympics, is White's great uncle.
But it was White's father, also named Des, who would set up bricks as cones on the backyard lawn for White and Smith to manoeuvre through as kids.
To get a better idea of how small this world can be, especially in Crookwell - White's mother, Julie owns the local IGA supermarket, where Smith's mum, Venetta, also works.
"I was pretty jealous of Kellie growing up because she had a hockey cage in her backyard, so we'd go there and whack goals," says Smith, 21, and one year White's junior.
"Kellie's dad was a big part [of our development], he often coached us in the backyard together at her house.
"What I loved most about growing up in Crookwell is that it's so carefree, everyone knew everybody. All the kids in our block would play together after school, parents didn't have to worry.
"Also from a young age, you're always playing [hockey] against people older than you because there's not enough players to make each age group. You had the experience of playing against the boys, too, because there wasn't enough boys for a comp."
White, who has 61 Australian caps, to Smith's 72, said hockey was in the town's DNA.
"We're real country people and fighters, I think that's in our spirit,'' White says.
"We're all each other's mates and when the tough times come, we stand up. I think that comes across in our sport as well, everyone at a young age plays sports and they're usually team sports."
White has had to fight back from her own adversity. Named in the Olympic squad for the 2012 London Games, she tore her anterior cruciate ligament in training, requiring a full reconstruction and a year off the pitch.
White and Smith were living together that Olympic year, training with the Hockeyroos in Perth. As White suffered, Smith was called in as the youngest member of the London Olympic squad.
"I still remember the day I did my knee, I turned to Em and said 'if I can't get there, you have to get there. I'll have you out the back doing extra sprints and training to make it','' White says.
"It was a pretty rough time. I took a bit of time off, went back home to Crookwell for about six weeks and was travelling between Crookwell and Canberra doing my rehab. I spent a lot of time with my family, which helped me get through those difficult times early on, because there was a lot of tears.
"But one of my best mates was living her dream, so I was able to get excited for Em and that allowed me to let the bitterness go.
"Now when I do get to represent Australia it really means a lot to me, it does make me quite emotional. Missing out that year was the worst thing that's happened to me in my sporting career. But I'm glad it happened in a way because it was a time for me to build character and now I'm more determined than ever and really chasing that gold medal."
Crookwell decorated its shop fronts to celebrate Smith's Olympic campaign, where Crookwell rower, Brooke Pratley, also claimed silver with now world-champion Kim Crow.
Smtih also recalls fondly her town holding raffles of firewood to send her to junior tournaments.
"I'm pretty sure my family's trip to the [London] Olympics was funded by the Crookwell community because otherwise they wouldn't have been able to attend,'' Smith says.
"My sister has made me a scrapbook of the Olympic experience, there's just pages of comments and people wishing me luck.''
White and Smith will play a five-Test series for the Hockeyroos against Japan, beginning in Western Australia on Saturday, along with Canberra's Anna Flanagan and Edwina Bone.
They want to stick together, pardon the pun again, until at least the 2016 Rio Olympics.
"We've done everything together, since we were in under-fives,'' Smith says.
"Kellie would buy a new hockey stick and I'd tell my mum I had to buy one, too.
"To play at the Olympics together would be a dream come true.''
2014 Key Dates – Hockeyroos
21-28 March: Hockeyroos v Japan, five match series (Kalgoorlie & Perth, WA)
31 May – 15 June: World Cup, The Hague, Netherlands
23 July – 3 August: Commonwealth Games, Glasgow, Scotland
29 November – 7 December: Champions Trophy, Argentina
