The Hockeyroos concluded their Hawke’s Bay Cup campaign – a significant preparation event for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games – with a dominant 3-1 win over China to secure third place in the eight nation event.
Grace Stewart’s quick reactions inside the opening two minutes, to slot home a rebound from a Brooke Peris shot, gave Australia’s women an early lead, which they never relinquished.
After an even first half, the Hockeyroos upped their performance in the third quarter and were rewarded with penalty corner goals from Jodie Kenny and Georgie Morgan.
Xi Xiayun pulled one back for China on the stroke of three-quarter time with a well taken strike across goal but Australia never looked like conceding the game.
Karri McMahon came closest to extending the Hockeyroos’ lead further from the penalty spot late on but Guo Jiajia acrobatically denied her, diving to her right.
Speaking to Hockey.org.au at the end of a highly competitive week, Hockeyroos coach Adam Commens was pleased with the outcome of the match.
“It was good to finish on a win. I thought we were a little slow in our ball movement in the first half but we were very polished in the second half; everyone contributed, our ball speed and movement were much better, we played at a much higher tempo and were quite dominant.
“China are a good side, fifth in the world, and it’s important we put teams like that away. I think you can see a bit of a gap emerging between the top four teams in the world and the rest, with Great Britain and USA, along with the Asian teams, trying to close it.”
On the tournament and on where he sees his side in its preparation for the Olympic Games, Commens added, “This has been a really worthwhile tournament. We earmarked Hawke’s Bay as the time we’d start to narrow down our thinking towards Rio.
“I’m pleased with how we’ve gone here. It wasn’t our best hockey but we weren’t trying to peak here, we’re trying to peak in Rio. Here was about learning as much as we can about our opposition and about our team, about working on our playing styles and structures. Overall, I’m really pleased.”
Earlier in the day, Korea overcame Canada 3-1 to take seventh, ahead of the tournament outsiders. And, following a 1-1 draw, Ireland beat India 4-3 in a shoot-out to finish fifth. It was their second shoot-out win in two days following their 1-0 shoot-out victory over Korea on Saturday.
In the last game of the day, New Zealand made a lightning start count, racing into a 2-0 lead that ultimately saw them run out 3-2 winners over Japan in the grand final.
The Hockeyroos squad featured WAIS scholarship athletes Ashleigh Nelson and Kathryn Slattery.
Australia’s women will now return to Australia for a six week training block before hosting New Zealand, Japan and India in a four nations event in Darwin from 31 May until 4 June, following which they will head to London for the Champions Trophy from 18-26 June.
-HockeyAus
