White helps seal win over Belgium

After a slow start, a field goal by NSWIS’ Tristan White and Glenn Turner in the second half has helped the Kookaburras come away with victory against the Belgium Red Lions. 

The Belgium team began the match with sustained attacking pressure, scoring the opportunity for a penalty corner five minutes in to the match, however Andrew Charter kept the ball out of the net and the Kookaburras managed to quickly get the ball back down in to their circle.

After an uneventful quarter the first term ended with both teams yet to score. The second quarter saw much of the same with both teams running the length of the pitch a number of times.

The third quarter began with an early shot on penalty corner for the Belgium team, but the Red Lions were unable to convert to a goal. They followed up with another penalty corner opportunity only minutes later but again the Australian defence were too good.

In the 38th minute of the game, the first goal of the match finally came to Glenn Turner after a deflection from Aran Zalewski. Flynn Ogilvie followed up by doing everything he could to get the ball back in the Kookaburras circle, sliding across the pitch and stopping the ball from going out of play.

The final quarter came with Australia looking to maintain their lead. In the 49th minute, Tristan White not only maintained the lead, but extended it by scoring a field goal, taking the Kookaburras out to two nil against Belgium.

The Red Lions had two opportunities on penalty corners with only minutes to go in the game, but the Kookaburras defence kept them at bay giving the Australian’s a two nil victory.

“It was a good lesson for us. We didn’t wake up until the second quarter of the game, and then we started to play a bit better, said Head Coach Graham Reid.

“The numbers behind the scene weren’t good for us tonight, whereas normally they are. They’re usually a sign that we create a lot of opportunities and that we don’t give too many away but tonight was opposite.”

“It was a really tough first quarter, they’re big, strong guys and they kind of put it to us in the first quarter and we knew we had to wake up as Graham [Reid] said to us at the break. We worked hard and were able to run over the top in the end so it was really pleasing,” added Tristan White.

Commenting on his goal, White humbly said: “The goal just fell for me; I swung and it went in so I’m happy with that.”

The Kookaburra’s next fixture is against India at 4pm on Thursday.