WA Quartet Selected for Kookaburras’ Gold Coast Campaign

Four Western Australian hockey athletes have been named in the Kookaburras squad to tackle next month’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

Trent Mitton and Aran Zalewski return as members of the men’s side who claimed gold in Glasgow four years ago, whilst Tyler Lovell and Jake Harvie join them and are set to make their Commonwealth Games debuts.

The quartet comprise part of Australia’s 18-member squad with the Kookaburras heading into competition as tournament favourites having just this week claimed victory at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia.

Australia will open its campaign on Saturday April 7 with a match against South Africa, before completing its Pool A fixtures with matches against; Scotland, Canada and regional rivals New Zealand.

Semi-finals will take place on Friday April 13 with the medal round matches hosted at the Gold Coast Hockey Centre on Saturday April 14.

Boasting a broad base of international talent at his disposal, Kookaburras head coach Colin Batch said Australia would take a strong group to the Gold Coast and they would aim to continue the Kookaburras’ record of having won gold in each men’s hockey tournament contested at Commonwealth level.

“We’ve got a lot of depth in our squad at the moment so there’s some disappointed players as you would expect,” Batch said.

“We are pleased with the 18 that we’ve selected. They’ve deserved their selection and we look forward to the Commonwealth Games now.”

“We’re very mindful that we’ve got a proud record in the Commonwealth Games and we want to continue that,” Batch said.