Brandan Horner is used to travelling to pursue his hockey passion, but usually it doesn't require a passport.
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The Lithgow local is currently in Austria with the Australian open men's indoor hockey team.
The highlight of the Austrian tour will be the Vienna Indoor Classic. It's the first time Australia has participated in the tournament which gets underway on Friday and will feature 14 men's and women's teams from six nations.
The Australian sides were selected from the national indoor championships played in Goulburn in January, where Horner helped the NSW open men make it 11-straight titles.
He has been a part of the last two after getting involved in indoor again about five years ago.
"I'd played indoor a few times as a junior," he said.
He had enjoyed it then, but it wasn't until a few of his outdoor team-mates suggested forming a team to go away and play at the indoor state championships, that he really got into it.
"It's so much fun," Horner said.
"Its so quick, it's a whole different aspect of hockey."
Since moving down to Lithgow the 25-year old, who works as an electrician in the coal mines and is also a retained firefighter, has had a big impact on the local hockey scene.
He has been in integral part of the Lithgow Panthers side, and was in 2014 named the Lithgow Senior Sports Star of the Year for his deeds on the hockey field, which included winning gold with the NSW under-21s.
Horner has also shown he's pretty handy on the cricket field.
He has on at least two occasions been named the Player of the Year for his club side and was the third highest run-scorer in the competition for the 2017-18 season.
It's on the hockey pitch though where his talents really shine. A regular fixture in NSW sides throughout his junior years, he had the privilege of donning the green and gold a few years ago as part of the Australian under-21s side.
He can't wait to pull it on again in Austria.
"It's great. I only went back to indoor for a bit of fun and happened to score a few goals," he said.
The tour comes off the back of another successful outdoor season, Horner playing a pivotal role as his Moorebank-Liverpool side secured back-to-back Sydney Premier League titles.
The striker also enjoyed a good season on an individual front, finishing the sixth highest goal-scorer in the competition with 14. Incidentally former Workies' team-mates Isaac Farmilo and Ehren Hazell were third and fifth respectively.
Horner has been playing in the Sydney competition pretty much since he moved down to Lithgow and has racked up plenty of kilometres in that time.
He usually makes the two-hour trip to train on a Friday before driving back and going on-call as a firefighter. He then repeats the journey on Saturday for the game.
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