Hockeyroos Crush Poland at World League

The Hockeyroos have made bold impression in their quest to win a spot at next year’s Rio Olympic Games, after thrashing Poland 9-0 in their opening match at the Hockey World League Semi Finals in Belgium.

Jodie Kenny showed she hasn’t missed a beat since last year’s medal successes at the World Cup, Commonwealth Games and Champions Trophy, firing four goals in the Hockeyroos’ win in Antwerp, with a devastating display of penalty corner drag-flick skill. 

The Queenslander’s three penalty corners and a penalty stroke against Poland were the foundations to the Australian women’s strong start to the competition in which a top three finish will guarantee Olympic qualification.

Georgie Parker, Emily Smith, WAIS athlete Kathryn Slattery, Georgia Nanscawen and Madonna Blyth all struck in a match that the Australian women controlled from start to finish.

Head Coach Adam Commens was pleased with the way in which his side had gone about their task and singled out their success rate from penalty corners as particularly pleasing.

He said, “We thought that Poland were an opponent that would compete quite hard but probably not bother us in terms of a result.

“We were hoping to make sure we could execute an effective game plan and I thought the girls did that really well. We made some adjustments to that game plan as the match went on and I thought they were able to implement those changes well, as well.

“The execution of our penalty corners was particularly pleasing. We’ve got a potent penalty corner battery and one of our aims was to be effective in the attacking circle, whether that’s a goal shot or gaining a penalty corner. I thought we did that really well.”

South Australian Georgie Parker’s emphatic rebound shot for 2-0 came following Kenny’s first quarter opener, a trademark pin-point flick into the top right corner.

Kenny’s second, low into the bottom left corner was her 80th for her country in this her 138th appearance and she completed her hat-trick midway through the third quarter, this time low to the right.

In between, Emily Smith knocked home a loose ball from close range for 4-0 and it was six when Slattery converted with composure in front of goal from a Karri McMahon penalty corner.

When Mariah Williams was fouled in the act of shooting Kenny stepped up to convert from the penalty spot for 7-0.

Another close range follow-up, this time from Nanscawen, made it eight before captain Blyth scooped in following excellent work by Casey Sablowski, whose endeavours to keep the ball in play following a save by the Polish goalkeeper paid off.

Madonna Blyth said, “We probably didn’t start quite how we wanted but the first game’s always important just to set the platform for how you want to play for the rest of the tournament. I think we’re pretty happy with that.

“Sometimes it can be difficult to play against an 11 man defence just to stick to your strategies, just to make sure you can get results when they’ve crowded the defence. For us it’s good practice, there are a few teams that do that and it’s set us up well for the tournament.”

The Hockeyroos face hosts Belgium on Wednesday in their second match. The Belgians recorded a narrow 1-0 win over India on Saturday in their opening match.

WAIS athletes Ashleigh Nelson and Kathryn Slattery will both represent Australia at the World League Semi Finals in Belgium.

-HockeyAus