Field Hockey

What a way to finish up the five-match series with a 5-0 whitewash by the Men’s Kookaburras team over India at the Perth Hockey Stadium. Game 4 and 5 saw India take the early advantage thanks to their excellent defense that restricted the Kookaburras attacking and conversion play, which helped them stay in the game whether if it’s 1-0 up or 1-1 at half-time.

But then what really let them down is their lack of attacking fire by relaxing the back four a bit to try and close it out their way when the Kookaburras’s last two quarters form was simply amazing to turn things around at the same time and yet we have seen goal after goal in quick succession & that is how the Kookaburras wanted to bring it home in front of their home fans for one last time in the meantime ahead of their 4 months stay in Europe. The final scores are 3-1 in Game 4 and 3-2 in Game 5.

So surely the Kookaburras need to go all out from the start and make the most of their complete attack as if they’re playing the Netherlands, Argentina or Germany all the time that would mean another breakthrough Olympics Gold since 2004 in Athens, Greece as they are now ranked in 3rd, while India as said need to push themselves up the pitch on top of their rock-solid defense but good to see them pick up more pluses though as they progress where wins will go their way soon enough.

Other than that, thank you to India for accepting the invitation to play a bit of Hockey here against our Kookaburras whose next games will be in Europe late next month to roll out the remaining FIH Pro League Season. But wait there’s more as the big International festival of Hockey in Perth isn’t done just yet with the women’s Hockeyroos team back on the field in a week-long Tri-Series tournament against China and Japan starting on Saturday – same time, same place with the first match up being Japan including a bit of Australia A along the way to help the best select their Olympics squad for Paris later this year.

Gotta say fair play to India on their valiant defensive performance that restricted most of the Kookaburras’ shots on target while being able to get away with the 1-0 lead for a bit off their 2nd penalty corner shot by Jugraj Singh before they were equalised 1-1 after quiet 2/3rds play – including a mighty effort from the goalkeeper who saved quite a lot and never backed down by P.R Sreejesh. But the win still belongs to the Kookaburras at home as they have clinched the five-match series 3-0 with two games to spare courtesy of a Jeremy Hayward double strike performance. The two goals he got away are one was a straight one-on-one penalty stroke after Amit Rhoidas couldn’t clear Joey Rintala out of the way at India’s own end & another was a penalty corner after his side regained some attacking momentum in the final third not long after India’s goal.

Now that the Kookaburras have secured the Men’s Perth Cup, they would need to be a bit better at their executions where a lot of shots on target were hit and misses or else the missed opportunities could go the opposition’s way like it was yesterday and also during the first-half of Game 2. This would be the big difference if they wish to dominate the rest of the FIH Pro League season as well as winning gold at the Paris Olympics in France later this year. And as for India, their defense is really strong and rock solid that frustrated most of the Kookburras failed conversions including penalty corners. They just need to make the most of their attack a bit more and we could see a really good contest all along with India still right in contention.

Game 4 coming up later tomorrow at the Perth Hockey Stadium before the series wraps up for Game 5 on Saturday. Will the Kookaburras sort out their attacking conversions like it was in Game 1 with a excellent start to the series 5-1 to try safeguard their lead for the win or can India get the job done more than just penalty corners on top of their rock solid defense? 

Game 2 yesterday saw some much needed improvements from India, who quickly derailed the Kookaburra’s good 1-0 early start with a successful penalty corner of their own before another goal puts them right in front of the Aussies ahead at half-time, 1-2. But then India couldn’t defend their one-point lead, especially in the 3rd quarter where the Kookaburas scored all three goals in one go before a quiet last 15 mins sealed the home team another win in Perth, 4-2.

Great to see Jeremy Hayward piling up back-to-back goals as he’s so destructive when striking off from penalty corners, while the Kookaburras put in a massive team effort to rip off the Indian defense off the back of the remaining two goals from Jacob Anderson & Nathan Ephraums & also credit to Flynn Ogilvie who read the opposition gaps by intercepting the ball really well.

As said from India, they know how to stop the Kookaburras which gave them a slight advantage in the first half. But a lack of attacking fire later on have compromised their good defensive structure where India walked away with another loss in the end. Questions will need to be asked if they wish to turn around come Game 3 on Wednesday. It’s a must win game for them as all the Kookaburras gotta do is win again to make it 3-0 and the Perth series trophy is theirs with two games to spare.

Great to have Field Hockey back here to kickstart the month of April with the Men’s Kookaburras team being too good v India 5-1 yesterday in Perth. They controlled the game really well having scored two goals in the first half thanks to their loads of possession, such as the quick turnover from defense to attack through the channels where Tim Brand scored the opening goal 1 v 1 through the left short side before he finished his strike past the keeper in the middle while Tom Wickham struck through the net from out of nowhere with help from Aran Zalewski – shoutout to him with his 250th cap. Later on, the Kookaburras continued to extend their lead after back-to-back goals in the third quarter where Ky Willott had one sensational cross strike off the wide left followed by another Wickham goal thanks to a poor Indian defence being intercepted by Flynn Ogilvie.

Towards the last 15 minutes play of the match, India was able to make up just the one consolation goal by turning it into a quick counter-attacking strike after saving a penalty corner that gave some space to process from Gurjant Singh. However, Ogilvie scored the 5th and final Kookaburras goal off a successful penalty corner who picked up a Jeremy Hayward deflection from Indian goalkeeper Krishan Pathak before he successfully struck through the net with less than 4 mins to go. It’s a great start by the unreal Kookaburras team so far with the desire to score even more left, right & centre as they lead the five-match series 1-0 & we will be back later today for the 2nd game to round off the weekend at 6.30 pm AEST/4.30pm local time.