Cast aside Hockeyroo Rosie Malone has accused her former employers of “power abuse” and “abruptly and inexplicably” putting an end to her international career after she was omitted from Hockey Australia’s senior women’s programme for 2025.
Malone revealed her Hockeyroos’ career is effectively over, following her controversial omission from the Paris 2024 squad and then not being put on the development squad where she could help younger players or fight for her place back in Katrina Powell’s team.
“He said he didn’t know the specifics, but the (panel) said that it was based on form and that they didn’t believe that I would bring any value to the Hockeyroos program leading into the LA Olympics,” she said in an Instagram post.
“At 26-years-old, being rarely ever injured in my whole entire career, of course it was something that was really hard to comprehend, especially because only 12 months ago, the Hockey Australia staff named me as their third most valuable Hockeyroo.”
Malone, who has scored 33 goals in 114 matches for the Hockeyroos, added: “I want to be clear, this isn’t about anyone being selected above or ahead of me. Those girls who have been chosen are worthy and deserve their time to celebrate.
“This is about an abuse of power and a broken system. There’s usual practice for someone of my age who has been dropped from the Hockeyroos based on form to be put into the development squad.
“The development squad has no cap on numbers and the number of girls in that squad changes every year.
“This year, they had a squad of 20, and for 2025 they’ve only named 13 girls.
“I’ve got seven years of senior international skills and knowledge I could have shared if they had just added me to that squad.
“But instead they’ve chosen to abruptly and inexplicably end my entire international career, and my head coach didn’t even have the courage or respect to pick up the phone herself and tell me.”
Malone said that players who spoke up in recent times within the women’s programme had been “punished and thrown aside”.
She said: “I know that there has to be a change in this sport, otherwise there will be so many other young girls like me who will be going through the system, who will be treated the same way and come out feeling pretty broken.
“This was definitely not my decision and it obviously breaks my heart.”
