The second encounter of day two at the ABN AMRO Hockey Champions Trophy produced a promising match-up between the Kookaburras and the Netherlands who both began their tournament campaigns with convincing wins.
It was the Netherlands who drew first blood with an inspiring penalty goal from Taeke Taekema in the 4th minute of the match. However, with the crowd behind them Australia were able to respond with a penalty corner goal from Grant Schubert in the 8th minute to level the match.
It wasn’t long before the crafty stick work of Glenn Turner was on full display, and at the 19th minute mark he produced Australia’s second goal for the match. The momentum continued in the Kookaburras favour and young gun Brent Dancer scored his first goal at the 22nd minute mark to extend their lead to 3-1.
With just over a minute to go Schubert was able to secure two more goals for the Kookaburras in the 33rd and the 34th minute, which put Australia in a commanding position.
The Netherlands needed to begin the second half well if they were to have any chance of getting back into the match. However they were unable to contain the Kookaburras who scored their sixth goal from a penalty corner by Luke Doerner in the 51st minute to lead 6-1.
The constant rotation of players off the bench was proving to be a winning formula for the Kookaburras as the match went deep into the second half. The 61st minute produced a stellar field goal from Australian captain and ball magnet Jamie Dwyer.
The Netherlands were able to finish off the match with a field goal from Robbert Kemperman in the 68th minute, but it did little to take the shine away from a convincing win by the Kookaburras and a hat-trick of goals by Grant Schubert.
Australian coach Ric Charlesworth said at the post-match press conference that he was pleased with the improvement shown by his younger players.
“This tournament is an important cauldron for them to prove that they can play at this level, against the top 6 teams in the world,” he said.
– Hockey Australia
