Kookaburras Wrap up Successful Campaign in Hobart
Trent Mitton was on the scoresheet as the Kookaburras rounded out their Hobart International Challenge campaign with a 5-0 victory over Pakistan.
Mitton added the Kookaburras’ fourth goal in the 54th minute as the hosts again kept a clean sheet as the squad builds towards June’s World League semi finals in Belgium. A top three finish in the ten team format at this tournament will see the Kookaburras book a spot at next year’s Rio Olympic Games.
A clinical final 30 minutes saw the Kookaburras overcome a tight opening half to run out 5-0 winners over Pakistan after both sides had cancelled one another out for much of the first half.
Eddie Ockenden nudged the Kookaburras ahead seconds before the half time hooter to separate the sides, but it was a re-energised Australian team that emerged for the second period as strikes by Chris Ciriello and Glenn Simpson gave the Kookaburras breathing space before Trent Mitton and Flynn Ogilvie gave the scoreboard a more realistic complexion late on.
Kookaburras Assistant Coach Nathan Eglington, standing in for Head Coach Graham Reid, said afterwards, “It was certainly a slow start. Pakistan are a great team. We knew they were going to come out hard and to the guys’ credit when we weren’t playing that well we were able to find something after half time and get ourselves into a position to actually take the game away from Pakistan. It was good clinical finishing really.
“We were presented with a pretty unique challenge – an end of a series which wasn’t actually a final, no medal up for grabs. But being able to maintain a level and a standard that we’ve held ourselves to for two weeks was enough motivation.”
Speaking afterwards about the week, Nathan Eglington added, “It’s been great. We exposed up to 40 players initially and then some players went home, the senior squad stayed behind. It’s invaluable to get that many test matches leading into our major event of the year, which is the World League Semi Final in June.
“We’ve certainly made ground since Azlan Shah [in April], some really big steps. The guys identified some areas for improvement and they’ve held themselves to account, individually and collectively, which has been pleasing.”
Looking ahead to the forthcoming selection of the squad for the World League Semi Final, he added, “It’s tough. You want guys to put their hand up every game and this series has presented the selection group with some very difficult decisions, which have to be made now.
“That’s always the position you want to be in. You never want to just roll in and pick a team. You want to have to go in there and really debate and to the guys’ credit everyone wants to play, everyone’s striving to improve. We could probably pick 30 players and they’d all do a really good job but unfortunately only 18 can go and that’s going to be a difficult decision.”
Mitton was joined in Kookaburras action in Hobart by fellow WAIS athletes Kiel Brown and Aran Zalewski.
-with HockeyAus
