She was going to retire immediately after Tokyo 2020 and then pursue her life outside of elite hockey. Before the pandemic delayed the Olympics, then border restrictions kept her from her family and she contemplated if she had another year to give the sport.

"I had to decide whether to push on or just give it away then and there, and I'm so glad that I held on and pushed for that extra year. Because I had some some of my best memories at the Tokyo Olympics, and I'm really grateful for that," she said.

"Having such a great experience then made me reconsider the decision to retire or not. I was so convinced after the last game of the Olympics I would announce my retirement and just be done with it, but it didn't play out like that because I think I had this little bit still left in me of 'this was so fun'.

"I have a lot of respect for [Hockeyroos' head coach Katrina Powell] and what she was able to achieve in the short time that she was with the group in the lead up to the Olympics. For me, it was quite mind blowing. Personally, I started enjoying my hockey again and I think that reflected in my performances and I owe that to Triny."

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The three-time Olympian announced her retirement on Thursday, after a 255 game career for Australia where she netted 88 goals along the way.

Like many Australians, the 29-year-old has been separated from her family by border restrictions since March 2020.

The Perth-based Olympian has managed to get home to regional NSW twice in the last two years, and was yet to meet her nearly one-year-old niece, which was something she said was challenging.

And it also prevented her family from being on the sidelines during her last games in green and gold.

"The challenging thing was they weren't able to come to my final Olympics. They'd all bought their tickets, our whole family, to watch me. That would have been really special to have them there, as to watch me play live was quite a rare experience, and everyone was really looking forward to it," she said.

"For me, not having them there, as hard as it was, it also just relieved that stress a little bit. Sometimes you put so much pressure on yourself to be able to perform in front of them but playing in front of an empty crowd, it just felt like another training match. And I think that's why I played some of my better hockey at the Tokyo Olympics because I didn't put that extra pressure on myself."

As she moves on from her hockey career in Perth into a KPMG accounting role, she and her husband will not be returning to Crookwell anytime soon following Premier Mark McGowan extended Western Australia's border closure.

"The plan is to stay here [in Perth] for the foreseeable future. The only thing is it's so far away from our family back in Crookwell. So that's challenging, especially during COVID times where you can't just jump on a plane and go and see them," she said.

"Maybe in the future, once we decide to start a family and things like that, we'll have to reconsider moving back closer to family. Because obviously we miss them a lot."