Kookaburras Settle for Silver in Azlan Shah Final

Australia has missed out on winning consecutive titles at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia after suffering a 4-3 defeat against Great Britain in Sunday’s final.

The title was Great Britain’s first since England claimed the 1994 edition and they did so by edging the Kookaburras outfit in an entertaining, high quality final.

GB established an early advantage over the Australians, scoring twice in the opening quarter through an Alan Forsyth field goal after eight minutes and an 11th minute penalty corner strike to David Goodfield.

Eddie Ockenden ensured the Aussies wouldn’t reach the main break goalless, scoring from open play in the penultimate minute of the first half to halve the deficit.

Ollie Willers restored GB’s buffer with a 33rd minute field goal before Goodfield scored his second of the match – this time from open play – to gift the side a 4-1 advantage with time running down.

Dylan Wotherspoon pulled one back for the Australians with a field goal in the 48th minute, setting up a nervy last 10 minutes, but the Kookaburras could not force the issue, with GB securing a one-goal win and Azlan Shah Cup bragging rights.

Kookaburras coach Colin Batch was left frustrated that his side – which had controlled field position – could not make the most of their opportunities.

“Again we were able to control large parts of the game and generate good opportunity. We scored three goals which is normally enough to win, not tonight however as our defence of the circle needs improving as do our penalty corner attempts.

“Great Britain were very successful from limited opportunity – we have to look at that and prevent it from happening. They were quick to generate counter attacks and also scored very quickly.

“From here we have a break, then we re-group and start our preparation for the World League. We have some players coming back to the squad, and over the next 7 or 8 weeks we will select our World League three team, so we’ll have a nice bit of time to prepare. It’s been a great learning tournament for us here and the learnings will be key to our preparation for World League three.”

Australia’s Azlan Shah Cup squad included three WA representatives, with Tyler Lovell, Trent Mitton and Tom Wickham all collecting silver medals.

Mitton was the tournament’s joint top scorer, with five goals for the campaign. The bronze medal was won by India, who defeated New Zealand 4-0 in the third place play-off.