Other Sports

The Kookaburras men’s team are now just one win away from rounding off their perfect Indian tour in the 2023-24 FIH Pro League season thanks to another win v the hosts this time via penalties 3-0 after a 2-2 draw in normal time. It was a close one with plenty of eyes surrounding controversy amongst the officials refereeing this game. India controlled the first-half well with back-to-back penalty corner strikes while the Kookaburras also got the penalty strike too but that was only through 1 v 1 inside the circle where Blake Govers struck successfully past the keeper. Fortunately, the Kookaburras stopped India from walking away with the win with only seven minutes to go in the fourth quarter at 2-2 when Ogilvie Flynn intercepted the free hit before he found his own man Tim Brand to finish it off through the net and that was fair too since 1-2 Indian players made an obstruction along the way. So it all comes down to the penalty shootouts to decide the game as always & the Kookaburras has escaped India unscathed once again thanks to three brilliant strikes including Johan Durst’s brilliant saves and tricks as the goalkeeper. And on India, commiserations to them as said with the early start being orchestrated by Manpreet Singh but then their defensive mode later on unfortunately didn’t pay off before they were consigned to defeated in the end there.

It might have taken a long while to get things going after a scoreless first half or first quarter but it’s still another unbeaten Kookaburras win though v Ireland again 4-1 ahead of this weekend’s last two matches of their Indian tour v the host country tomorrow followed by the Netherlands on Sunday. This game is all about the best of Irish defense v the Aussie attack where the opposition goalie (Milliken James) made a few brilliant saves here & there that gave his Ireland side the chance to put pressure onto our Kookaburras in return. However, ill-discipline & a lack of attacking fire saw the Kookburras fire back a few goals mostly off penalty corners courtesy of Jack Welch, who was a decent threat up front thanks to the dominant possession that includes the team’s fourth goal himself. So Australia’s unstoppable 2nd half performance has ended the long patience of the Irish defense at the end of the day. And shoutout to Corey Weyer at the back who is not only great in defense but can link up for his own attacking players well and can be a handy at the other end when it comes to penalty corners. Two more games to go in the hope of wrapping up their Indian leg entirely undefeated on the way back here early next week.

Today this year’s Melbourne Cup edition will have a new free-to-air rights partner over the next six years (2024-2029). Now it won’t be back on Ten or even Seven but it will be on Nine for the first time ever under Tabcorp, who will hold most of the rights packages including its advertising and broadcast content, etc. Nine are just there to be onboard as they won’t be paying the whole lot unlike Seven & Ten who previously paid lots of $$$ to show the races. The week-long carnival such as Derby Day, Melbourne Cup Day, Oaks Day & Stakes Day will be live on Nine & 9Now. It remains to be seen if Nine will have their own on-air crew onboard with Tabcorp either as a joint broadcast effort or will have just some of their own air times during this annual event, which is similar to what Seven do when they air selected live Supercars races with Fox Sports every year. But other than that, it’s great to see them air the Melbourne Cup Horse Racing for the first time come November.