Kookaburras Claim Azlan Shah Title

The Kookaburras have won the Azlan Shah Cup tournament in Malaysia after seeing off India 4-0 in Sunday’s final.

Two goals apiece to Tom Craig and Matt Gohdes secured the trophy and ensured Australia would finish its campaign undefeated in Ipoh. 

Despite a slow start for both sides, the Australians broke the deadlock in the 25th minute, through a field goal to Craig, before taking control of the match in the third quarter to establish a three goal lead.

With nine minutes left in the game, Mandeep Singh missed a crucial opportunity to get India into the game, after he mistimed his flick with only the keeper to beat, leaving Gohdes to seal victory for Australia in the 57thminute, after he trapped an overhead pass from centre field and used a reverse stick hit to send the ball into goal.

Kookaburras Head Coach, Graham Reid said: “It was a really first class performance for the boys today. Good to see some of the things we’ve worked on a lot this tour being put into action.

“It was a really good defensive effort, one particularly in the third quarter and one towards the end of the game. The boys really worked hard throughout the game. It was great to see a couple of nice goals in there from Tom as well.

“There’s a long way to go to Rio, so it’s important to celebrate these milestones, but we’ll be back into training next week.”

WAIS scholarship athletes Fergus Kavanagh, Aran Zalewski and Tyler Lovell were all members of the Kookaburras’ Azlan Shah Cup squad.

Earlier in the evening New Zealand defeated Malaysia to take out third place at the cup, by means of a shoot-out after the score was tied at 3 – 3 at the full time siren. 

-with HockeyAus