Hockey: Northlanders headline Black Sticks squad

Madison Doar is one of five Northlanders in the Black Sticks 2018 squad. PHOTO/PHOTOSPORT.NZ

Five Northlanders have been put in the Black Sticks mix ahead of a bumper 2018 hockey season.

Strikers Madison Doar and Sam Harrison are joined by defenders Ella Gunson, Stacey Michelsen and Brooke Neal in the 24-strong national squad, with two massive events coming up in the middle of the year.

The Black Sticks will look to finish on top of the heap at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April before taking on all the world's best teams at the Women's Hockey World Cup in July and August in London.

The squad has a mix of relatively young players and experienced heads.

Doar falls into the former category as one of two teenagers in the squad.

She has impressed in her eight outings for the Black Sticks and will be hoping to continue that form throughout the next couple of campaigns.

On the other end of the scale is defensive trio Gunson, Michelsen and Neal.

The three have combined for 549 appearances for the national side and will be integral in the squad's medal and title aspirations.

The Women's National Squad is strengthened by the return of Anita McLaren, who was recently named in the Vantage Black Sticks team to play Argentina in February.

McLaren (nee Punt), with 247 internationals, is the Vantage Black Sticks Women's leading all-time goal scorer having found the back of the net 96 times.

The 2018 women's development squad was also named, with another Northlander in the mix.

Goalkeeper Brooke Roberts, who now plies her trade for North Harbour, has been included in the nine-strong list.

Roberts has come up through the age groups, playing at the Under 21 Women's World Cup in Chile in 2016.