England Hockey forward Lily Owsley has urged clubs to embrace change or risk the future of the domestic game.

The 24 year-old who is "on her way to being one of the top hockey players in the world", according to England's head coach Mark Hager, said there needed to be a root and branch review of the league structure and how the sport is marketed. 

"The coverage needs to be heightened but at the moment they [TV broadcasters] won't want to heighten it because there are no crowds," Owsley told NewsChain.

"But we won't get these crowds unless it is streamed so people can become fans and follow a team and at the minute you can't do that."

But the reason there are no crowds, apart from "family and friends", is because no one follows the domestic clubs. 

"In football you follow a football club, people don't really do that in hockey. The clubs need to do more interviews and promote their clubs. One of them needs to kick off first!"

England Hockey have made efforts by reaching out to the clubs urging them to turn professional, drawing on the experience and success of Belgium and the Netherlands who have a much stronger domestic structure.

"I think in theory it's a very good idea," says Owsley, " it's just how we get to that point which is the difficult bit. 

"[Making the clubs] professional would be a brilliant way to get to [their standard] and hopefully we can aspire to be like that, but it is kind of filling in the stepping stones in-between that.

"The clubs are hesitant [to turn professional] because of the standard at the moment in this country in general, it is not quite where it needs to be. As soon as that standard shifts up or we train more with clubs then they will become more professional.

"I've always been an advocate for if you play well at club you should be rewarded with international trials or even games. But to get to that level we have to up the standard of hockey and up the professionalism."