Kookaburras Complete Series Win Over Japan

The Kookaburras proved why they are the world number one ranked side on the weekend, defeating Japan 7-1 at the National Hockey Centre in Canberra to complete a 3-0 series win.

In a dominant display the Kookaburras proved far too strong for Japan and with less than four months to the London Olympics, Coach Ric Charlesworth said it gets tougher after every game to predict who will be chosen to play for gold medal glory.

“This series is another brick in the wall in the pathway to get to London,” he said. “Bit by bit the group is maturing, they’ve been tested and challenged but physically they’re where I wanted them to be.”

Despite a lack of forced penalty corners once again, Charlesworth was pleased with today’s circle penetrations. “It’s not because we weren’t looking for them, I think we had a lot of good chances,” he said

“I’m happy for them to take their shots the shots just should have been better.”

Despite this, Kieran Govers ended the series on a high note with a hat trick, while Rob Hammond scored twice and five time world player of the year Jamie Dwyer sent home a screamer. Home town champ Glenn Turner posted a late deflection to round out the assault on the scoreboard.

While Japan once again had few opportunities up front, number 14 Nagasawa Katsuyoshi, made no mistake with a well executed drag flick that found the top corner.

The Kookaburras will now head back to Perth to prepare for the London Cup where they will play four games in five days and a handful of other matches in Europe.

Charlesworth said more than twenty players would make the trip and continue to press for Olympic selection.

Earlier:

The Kookaburras had a solid 3-nil win over Japan, in their second match of a three game series, at the National Hockey Centre in Canberra.

The team created plenty of opportunities up front but the score did not reflect how dominant the Kookaburras were and Coach Ric Charlesworth said the team needed to work on the basics but he was reasonably happy with their effort.

“We should of converted more opportunities, we made more errors than I would have liked but it was solid and a solid performance at the back,” he said. “Nobody stood out, the errors took the gloss off the performance.”

Charlesworth wanted the players to be more patient with the ball, when the Japanese flooded their defence, making it hard for the Kookaburras to create space.

“It’s the fifth game at the end of the week but there is no excuses, everybody is playing for a spot in the Olympic team and every game counts,” he said. “When it gets crowded we need to be slicker and quicker.”

The Kookaburras looked a little rusty in the opening minutes but soon started to get on top. Matthew Butturini opened the scoring at the 20 minute mark, before Russell Ford sent one home just before half-time, to take the Kookaburras to a 2-0 lead at the break.

The second half was fairly congested and despite more opportunities, the team could only add one more conversion after the siren, when Glenn Simpson made no mistake with a superb drag flick.

Kookaburra Mark Knowles said the team defended well but he was disappointed with the lack of forced penalty corners,
just three for the match. “If you defend well you’ve got a good chance of winning and we did that today but we’ll be working on penalty corners for tomorrow,” he said.

-Hockey Australia