On Friday night at the State Hockey Centre in Brisbane, the terraces and grassy hill were overflowing. National Under‑14 players, still with one more day of their own tournament to play, poured through the gates in their team tracksuits, waving handmade signs and chanting for their heroes. They had come to see the perennial challengers Brisbane Blaze take on the reigning, unbeaten champions Perth Thundersticks in the One Active Hockey One League women’s season opener. What they witnessed was a young goalkeeper stepping into her moment.
Jordan Bliss, just 22 and already in her fourth Hockey One season, produced a performance that will be remembered long after the neon ‘Poligras’ sign above Brisbane’s home ground flickers for the final time. In regular time she made seven crucial saves to keep the Blaze alive against a Perth side stacked with stars. With the scores locked 1–1 at the final siren, the result was sent to a shootout, and Bliss knew her performance here would have a big say in the result. In opposition colours, stood Perth’s own Hockeyroos keeper, Zoe Newman.
First up for the Thundersticks was Line Malan, who was denied by Bliss with a sharp, decisive stop. With the shootout level 1-1, next strode forward two of the best players in Australian hockey right now, Maddi Ratcliffe and Hockeyroos co‑captain Kaitlin Nobbs. Both were turned away, their plans disrupted by the same grit Bliss once honed in Mackay parks at sunrise, her dad firing tennis balls at her until her reflexes were razor sharp. By the time the Blaze sealed the 3-1 shootout win, the upset was complete. Bliss was mobbed by her teammates, named player of the match, and the underdogs had toppled the champions in front of a boisterous home crowd.
The match was her 25th Hockey One cap, but the first without her father, Scott, in the stands. He tragically passed away in June after an 18‑month battle with cancer. “It was bittersweet,” she says. “Sweet because I was ready to showcase what I’m capable of as a goalkeeper, but bitter because it was my first Hockey One game without Dad in the grandstand. I know he would have been proud, and then told me to move on to the next job.”
Scott had been her first and most important coach. From the age of 10, he was the one waking her before sunrise in Mackay, setting up the ball machine on the quiet local fields, or hitting balls at her in the park. She admits that sometimes they clashed and sometimes she was tired, but always the lessons from her father stuck. “We were a good team, Dad and I,” she says. “He was technical and he wanted quality not quantity. After a good set he’d clap, make a joke, and remind me that hard work was the only way dreams come true.”
That bond made his illness all the harder to bear. Jordan had just returned from playing with the Jillaroos at the Junior World Cup in Chile in 2023, where she had played every minute against the Netherlands, Argentina and Chile, and helped Australia to a fifth‑place finish, when she learned the truth. Scott had fallen ill during the tournament, but he had kept his diagnosis to himself, not wanting to distract her or weigh her down while she wore the green and gold. “It was devastating,” she says. “I’d been away representing my country, and to come home and find out he’d gotten sick during the tournament… it was a shock. But that was Dad. He was selfless. He never wanted the focus on him. He wanted me to keep going, to keep chasing my dream.”
For the next 18 months, she balanced the rigours of elite hockey with hospital visits, training sessions with quiet conversations at his bedside. After every game or practice, she would stop in to see him, and he would always leave her with the same four words: Be the hardest worker. “That’s what I carry with me every time I step onto the pitch,” she says. “It’s shaped who I am, including my team‑first mentality, my technical skills and my resilience.”
That resilience has already taken her far already. She has represented Australia at junior level, and in the past year has also pulled on the colours of the Northern Territory Stingers, gaining invaluable experience. With the Stingers she played against Indonesia in Darwin, and travelled competed in the Malaysian National Hockey League. “It reminded me of playing back home in Mackay, grit and never giving up,” she says. She credits those matches, along with the support of the Queensland Academy of Sport and her Brisbane Blaze teammates, for sharpening her confidence. “Blaze is always like a sisterhood,” she says. “We push each other, we stick together when times are tough. This year we’ve really emphasised accountability and doing what’s best for the team defensively.”
Her home ground in Brisbane also reflects her journey. A beautiful quarry carved out of rock with its infamous neon sponsorship sign, glowing defiantly over the turf at night throughout the One Active Hockey One League. It’s a venue that has seen countless young players dream big and reach for the stars, and Bliss is now one of the idols those kids in tracksuits and signs look up to.
That journey has also been shared with one of her closest friends, Claire Colwill. The two first bonded as teenagers representing Mackay at state championships, and their friendship has carried through to the elite level. Now Colwill is not just a Blaze teammate but Hockeyroos co‑captain, and Bliss treasures the bond. “Claire and I grew close back then, and to still be playing alongside her now is really special,” she says.
Away from the pitch, Bliss works as a support worker and childcare educator, and will begin a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy next year. She is sponsored by The Hockey Hub in Tingalpa, a partnership that reflects her growing profile in the sport. She also coaches young goalkeepers, passing on the lessons her father gave her. “It’s my way of honouring him,” she says.
Through it all, her family, mum Samantha and younger sister Charli, have been her rock. “I’ve had so much support from family, friends and the hockey community,” she says. “That’s what’s kept me going.”
The Brisbane Olympics may still be further over the horizon, but Bliss dares to dream of wearing the green and gold on home soil. “It would be a literal dream,” she says. “But for now, it’s about working hard, doing my job for the Blaze, and being ready if and when the opportunity comes.”
And if Scott could have been in Perth to see his daughter deny Malan, Ratcliffe and Nobbs, and lift her team to victory? Jordan doesn’t hesitate. “He would have been very proud,” she says softly. “And then he would have told me “time to move on to the next game.”