Seven WAIS Athletes Selected For Hockey Tournament

Published On: 17 July 2009

Graeme Begbie has been named in the Kookaburras squad ahead of a busy schedule in July and August

Seven WAIS men’s hockey athletes have been selected to represent the Kookaburras and Australia A in the upcoming three nations/four team tournament to be hosted by Canberra later this month.

Young gun Graeme Begbie will join 2008 Olympian Fergus Kavanagh in the Kookaburras line up whilst Ross Meadows, Brent Dancer, Ian Burcher, Kiel Brown and Jono Charlesworth will take the field for Australia A in the tournament that features Malaysia and Canada.

The tournament, to be held in the national capital from July 29 – August 2, is the main event in a busy schedule for Ric Charlesworth’s side in the coming weeks.

Prior to the Canberra event the Kookaburras, including Begbie and Kavanagh, will play two Tests against Malaysia in Adelaide while following the tournament they will also play Canada in a stand alone Test series. The busy period will be capped by the Oceania Cup in late August.

The schedule and selected squads illustrate Charlesworth’s desire to build depth in the national squad leading up to the 2010 World Cup and 2012 Olympic Games.


“We are trying to build a deep squad and there is competition for positions, which is reflected in the squads we have selected,” the national coach said.


“I expect that these teams could change for the final two matches against Canada and then again soon after as we finalise the squad to play in New Zealand for the Oceania Cup.”