HOCKEY: The Kookaburras took on Great Britain in their opening round match of the Hockey Champions Trophy 2016 at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
The first quarter began with pace, with both teams sprinting the length of the pitch numerous times. The Kookaburras were first to get the chance a penalty corner with Daniel Beale injecting, for a trap by Simon Orchard and a goal shot by Tristan White.
This was quickly followed by a second shot at a penalty corner which was again injected by Beale, before being trapped by White and flicked by Chris Ciriello; narrowly missing the net.
Minutes later and a foul on Trent Mitton saw the Kookaburras with their third penalty corner attempt. This was followed up by three more chances at penalty corners for the Kookaburras which went unconverted.
At the first quarter break the score was deadlocked, with both teams yet to score.
The Kookaburras were after the goal in the second quarter with the first chance at a penalty corner. Glenn Turner injected, White trapped and there was a scramble at the net resulting in a penalty stroke chance for the Australians which was swiftly overturned by the video umpire.
Great Britain made the most of the ruling, and quickly had the ball back down in their circle, however it wasn’t long before Australia had another shot on penalty corner. The first attempt was blocked, with Australia getting another shot.
After the missed opportunities, the ball was back down in the Great Britain circle with a fast attempt on goal, but Tyler Lovell swiftly knocked it out of range.
Great Britain scored their first penalty corner attempt with two minutes to go in the first half. It was deflected, and they got a second chance but Lovell was fighting and saved the ball from the net with ease.
At the beginning of the second half the score was still deadlocked, and with not as many opportunities in the third quarter it remained that way going in to the final quarter of the match.
With eight minutes to go in the game Australia got a shot at goal with a penalty corner that was deflected with a great save from Great Britain Goalkeeper George Pinner. The final siren went with the score remaining level at nil all.
Head Coach Graham Reid said: “We created a lot of opportunities, we had a lot of corners that we unfortunately didn’t put away. It was a mix perhaps of execution issues, but also perhaps that Great Britain defended very well and we just have to work a little bit harder on different variations. A lot of today was getting used to the conditions here, and we did play very nicely.
“Now we have Korea up next. They are the team to chase and we only have 22 hours before our next game so we have to put this game to bed and look towards Korea tomorrow.”
Australia next play Korea tomorrow at 6pm BST / 1am AWST (Sunday 12) / 3am AEST (Sunday 12).
Results today
GER 3 – 3 IND
BEL 0 – 2 KOR
GBR 0 – 0 AUS
Kookaburras’ squad v Great Britain
Chris Ciriello (Melbourne, VIC) 187/114
Tim Deavin (Launceston, TAS) 127/6
Blake Govers (Wollongong, NSW) 27/24
Jeremy Hayward (Darwin, NT) 55/17
Tyler Lovell (Perth, WA) 67/0
Eddie Ockenden (Hobart, TAS) 273/64
Flynn Ogilvie (Wollongong, NSW) 29/11
Simon Orchard (Maitland, NSW) 198/56
Matthew Swann (Mackay, QLD) 136/6
Glenn Turner (Goulburn, NSW) 125/90
Aran Zalewski (Margaret River, WA) 87/10
Used Substitute
Daniel Beale (Brisbane, QLD) 76/15
Josh Beltz (Hobart, TAS) 10/2
Matthew Dawson (Killarney Vale, NSW) 42/7
Trent Mitton (Perth, WA) 89/33
Andrew Philpott (Melbourne, VIC) 24/1
Tristan White (Wollongong, NSW) 76/3
Unused Substitute
Andrew Charter (Canberra, ACT) 110/0
Kookaburras’ Fixtures
Saturday June 11, AUS v KOR: 6pm BST / 1am AWST (Sunday 12) / 3am AEST (Sunday 12)
Monday June 13, AUS v GER: 2pm BST / 9.00pm AWST / 11.00pm AEST
Tuesday June 14, AUS v BEL: 8pm BST / 3am AWST (Wednesday 15) / 5am AEST (Wednesday 15)
Thursday June 16, AUS v IND: 4pm BST / 11.00pm AWST / 1am AEST (Friday 17)
Friday June 17, TBC
Hockey Australia
