Slattery and Nelson Included in Hockeyroos’ Squad

Kathryn Slattery and Ashleigh Nelson have been named in the Hockeyroos’ squad for next month’s World League Final in Rosario, Argentina.

The WAIS duo form part of an 18-strong squad set to compete in the tournament held across December 5-13, with members of the Australian team pushing their credentials for inclusion into the 2016 national squad, from which the Hockeyroos’ Rio Olympic squad will be chosen.

Australia coach Adam Commens expects his side to push for a finals berth in Argentina but believed the tournament provided an opportunity to test some of his younger athletes in a high pressure situation.

“We’re taking a team that can be competitive enough to be playing in finals,” he said.

“As with the other top nations we’ve decided to use the tournament to give an opportunity to some of our younger up-and-coming players. We want to understand how they handle the crowd noise and the intensity of tournament hockey with six matches in nine days.

“As a result, we’ve left out some more experienced players. We know what the likes of Anna Flanagan and Teneal Attard are capable of under those conditions, but if we don’t expose the younger ones to it then we might not get many more opportunities to do so before having to make our decision on an Olympic team.”

The Hockeyroos will face China, Argentina and Great Britain in their pool phase, with the Netherlands, New Zealand, Korea and Germany making up the other side of the draw.

“We’re ranked number two in the world so we need to be expecting to reach the medal matches and that we can take gold in events like this,” said Commens.

“Argentina is a place we’ve enjoyed success in the past. We’ve reached the final in our last two visits (the 2013 World League Final and 2014 Champions Trophy) and we’ll be looking to do the same again.” 

Fox Sports will show the Hockeyroos’ quest for World League Final glory in Australia.

Australia’s women qualified for the World League Final through their third-place finish at the World League Semi-Final tournament in Antwerp in July, the event that secured Olympic qualification. 

The Hockeyroos reached the gold medal match of the inaugural Hockey World League Final two years ago where they came away with the silver medal after a 5-1 reversal at the hands of the Olympic Champions, the Netherlands. 

-HockeyAus