Shootout heartache as Kookaburras and Hockeyroos fall to Olympic medallists

The Kookaburras and Hockeyroos are heading to the next stage of the FIH Pro League in Argentina on a high after debuting their next gen of exciting talent in front of record-breaking crowds in Sydney.

Both squads launched 2025 with great success, as the Hockeyroos won three from four of their opening matches against Spain and the Olympic silver medallists China. While the Kookaburras beat the Olympic champions and came extremely close against Spain on two occasions.

Both sides fell just short of signing off on their FIH Pro League Sydney campaign in winning style, going down to the Olympic champion Netherlands and Olympic silver medallists China on Sunday night.

An intense fourth quarter breakdown cost the Kookaburras their second-straight win over the world number one Netherlands.

The Kookaburras went into the fourth quarter 4-1 up before the Olympic gold medallists enacted a swift comeback of epic proportions as they earned eight penalty corners and tested the Aussie's defence on countless occasions. 

As the packed Aussie and Dutch crowd rained down on the players, the penalty defence and goalkeeper Jed Snowden, in just his fourth international match, was put to work, conceding three goals out of eight attempts to level the scores at 4-all and send the match to a shootout.

In his first international shootout, Jed couldn't halt the Netherlands in the one-on-one battle, and despite goals from Jake Harvie and Ky Willott against Dutch goalie Maurits Visser, the Netherlands would record a clean sweep to win the match.

Earlier, the Kookaburras were immense, equaling the scoring with the Netherlands in the second quarter after the Dutch took an early lead through Derck de Vilder in the first.

Kookaburras veteran Jeremy Hayward scored his first of a double, with a soaring trademark flick off just their second penalty corner.

Jeremy's 121st career goal in his 235th appearance prompted an onslaught, as Victorian Ben White rose to the occasion and found the back of the net with a fantastic deflection off a save at the penalty corner to score his first international goal just a minute later.

"It's just unbelievable, I actually can't believe it," Ben White said post-match.

"I'm just living my younger self dream at the moment... straight after that goal, I had a couple of mates who I grew up playing hockey with come straight up to me. It's special."

In the third quarter, the duo were at it again, as Jeremy nailed another penalty corner to extend the lead to 3-1 before Ben responded with a sensational field goal that rocketed in the corner of the net to extend the lead by three.

"For a while now, I thought the Kookaburras opportunity was getting away from me, so to be here now is just unbelievable, I'm lapping it up, and I haven't been able to wipe my smile off my face the last couple weeks, I'm just loving it," Ben added.

"You have to look at it and be happy that we got to 4-1 up. We'll learn from that last quarter and take away all of the good moments of play before it, and we'll use it to get better," captain Josh Beltz said.

"To see those guys firing, all of our strikers firing and having those guys score was awesome... It's the start of a very long journey, and I think we're on the right track already."

The Hockeyroos were motivated to secure a clean sweep of the series, with another dominant performance against China. 

But China's pressure on the press saw the Hockeyroos falter, and the Olympic silver medallists made them pay three times in the space of five minutes.

The visitors scored two of three goals off the penalty corner to take a three-goal lead, and the Hockeyroos struggled to claw it back.

WA's Penny Squibb scored a much-needed goal just a minute later, with a great shot off an Australian penalty corner, but the Hockeyroos couldn't produce the comeback required, and China made amends on their first loss to Australia.

"We've been really proud of the performances we put out earlier this week," Hockeyroos captain Grace Stewart said.

"Tonight we lapsed for about 10 minutes out there, and they really took advantage of that, but other than that, we're really proud of where we started from, and it's given us a great base to build from in the coming weeks, months and years!

"We probably had two training sessions before we all played together, so to come out here and build connections and win three from four is really exciting moving forward.

"These crowds have been amazing, and it's been great to play in Australia. I was walking around last night, and people were telling me about how they've come from Queensland, Adelaide, and everywhere! So hopefully, we've inspired a few little girls to play hockey, and it seems like we have because they're coming out to support us."

The Hockeyroos and Kookaburras will remain in Sydney for a training camp before flying to Santiago del Estero for the next stage of the FIH Pro League against Argentina and Belgium from 21 - 25 February.