Whether she was wielding a polocrosse racquet or mastering a one-arm handstand, 12-year-old Charlize Sibley had the Australian national polocrosse championships crowd entranced at Chinchilla on the weekend.
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It didn't matter which team scored a goal, the Western Australian youngster and her teammates broke out a range of flips, twirls and splits that rivalled any of the action on the turf fields.
Charlize was one of the contingent that travelled across the country to compete for a national title but unlike the majority that drove across in stages, taking five or more days, she and her family, including her father Rob, who coached WA's junior boys team, put their horses on a friend's truck then flew east, hiring a car and a camper in Brisbane and driving the four hours west.
It meant she was fresh as a daisy when competition started, resulting in a 15-12 win over NSW in the 2024 sub-junior championship and a best No 2 trophy to start her polocrosse collection.
Charlize and her family are from Chittering, 70km north of Perth and are part of around 400 people who play the sport in the west.
She was three or four when her father started leading her around on a horse, and has been doing gymnastics for nearly as long.
"Polocrosse is probably the best, because I can do gymnastics at polocrosse," she said.
She's just turned her hand to dance as well, which could brighten up many a carnival for years to come.
Either way, the ambitious young player is keen to travel as much as she can, with each of the sports she's doing.
Living in Western Australia, chances are, travel is what she's going to be doing lots of.
One of the WA group, Trish Jones said it had been a 'big gig' for the black and gold teams to compete at Chinchilla, nearly as far away as an eastern states carnival can get for a Sandgroper.
Not only did it take them days to trek across the bottom of Australia and up through Broken Hill, but it's out of season for the seven teams taking part.
Polocrosse in the west is played from June to November, so they had to prepare the 60 horses taking part for three or four months out of season.
The last nationals WA competed in was in their home state, at Perth, in 2018.
The pandemic cancelled the biennial contest in 2020, and they had a number of setbacks which saw them unable to take part at Ballarat in 2022.
"We only get a nationals every 10 years at home so we've got to punch above our weight a bit," she said. "The open mixed and intermediate mixed teams only missed out on being in finals by one goal earlier in the week, and the junior boys and girls all played above their weight."
To make the most of the huge trip east, the sub-junior team plus the junior boys and girls teams, are now heading to Narrabri in NSW, where they'll be taking part in the junior classic there.
Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
