The Australian Men’s Hockey Team’s pursuit for their eighth medal in nine Olympic Games fell short on a quarterfinals day, going down to the Netherlands 2-0, where three medal favourites were sensationally knocked out of the race.
For the third straight Olympic campaign, two hockey superpowers the Netherlands and Australia faced off in the quarterfinal, just three years on from the Kookaburras nail-biting win in a shootout and seven years on from when the Dutch won in Rio.
Still hurt from that loss in Tokyo, a brilliant Netherlands outfit showed up in Paris to slowly end Australia’s strong hopes.
Aussie’s most-capped goalkeeper ever Andrew Charter was exceptional in his 250th outing in green and gold and while he saved four penalty corner attempts, nothing was stopping Duce Telgenkamp’s rocketing deflection off a penalty corner or Thijs van Dam’s sublime run in the final quarter.
The Kookaburras had many moments of brilliance themselves as they fought valiantly to claw back just a one-goal lead for most of the match.
But ultimately, the Netherlands won crucial big game moments in front of a roaring, bright orange crowd and it wasn’t Australia’s evening under the lights at Yves du Manoir stadium.
“A lot of energy, effort and time goes into these campaigns,” Kookaburras captain Aran Zalewski said.
“You're trying to do all you can to repeat yourself and set yourself up to perform. Sometimes it just doesn't go your way.
“As much as we wanted it, as much as we tried to put everything in place, you have to accept that it just wasn't our Olympics.
“It’s going to hurt. It's going hurt a lot of boys, a lot of us only get one Olympics or very few opportunities to do this.
“So sometimes you feel like something slips and you just have to kind of live with it.”
“You have to play to your absolute best to win,” said Eddie Ockenden.
“You have to go out there every single game and play your best to win. It's very hard and when you don't quite do it you don't win.”
Kookaburras coach Colin Batch agreed the result on a day, where so many top nations fell, was a reflection of the strength of world hockey.
"Belgium were flying and suddenly they're out of it, and India were a bit stop-start and they had an outstanding game today,” he said.
“The Netherlands played a really good game today, so we have to acknowledge that we were very even first up, but they took their chances and then defended very well. I think we put up a pretty good show, even though we lost today."
Kristina Eddy
