Kookaburras finish winners on home soil

The Australian men’s hockey team, the Kookaburras, including NSWIS athletes Flynn Ogilvie, Blake Govers and Simon Orchard have defeated Great Britain 5-1 in the third and final game of their recent test series in Perth. 

After a drawn first game and narrow 4-3 win for Australia in the second game, the Kookaburras put the winning result beyond doubt in the final game, playing in front of a capacity crowd of 5,000 at Perth Hockey Stadium for their last official game in Australia before the Rio Olympics. 

With the score locked at 1-1 with the clock counting down in the first quarter, it was Orchard who struck to put the Aussies ahead at the first break, coming off the bench to make the most of a penalty corner. 

It was in the very next stanza of play that Govers added his name to the scorers list to take Australia to a 3-1 lead, his points coming thanks to a penalty corner that swooped in above Great Britain’s goalkeeper. 

The scoreboard remained unchanged leading into half time, taking a further 14 minutes to register another goal as Australian captain Mark Knowles hit a penalty stroke shot to take the Aussies to 4-1. Pleasingly the Kookaburras defence stood up to a Great Britain penalty corner soon after. 

On the other side of the final break, and with a minute to spare Australia’s opening goal scorer Jamie Dwyer nailed his second shot to hand Australia victory. 

With the Rio Games drawing nearer, Govers will take confidence from the test series, where he scored three of Australia’s four goals in game two, backed up with another successful shot in the final match. 

NSWIS had five athletes represent the Kookaburras throughout the test series, with Govers, Ogilvie and Orchard joined by Matthew Dawson and Tristan White