Three debut in Kookaburras’ series opening win over Malaysia
Published Sat 23 Apr 2022
Debutants James Collins, Craig Marais and Ky Willott have become the latest in the distinguished list of those to represent Australia’s national men’s hockey team as the Kookaburras recorded a 3-0 win against Malaysia in Perth.
First half goals from Tom Wickham, Blake Govers and Jeremy Hayward were enough for the Kookaburras to see off the world number 11 ranked Malaysians in the first of the 4-match series.
It has been 258 days since the Kookaburras featured on the international stage, but it took just 50 seconds for them to find the back of the net from the opening pushback.
Tenacious pressure from Jake Whetton caused the turnover and on the counter attack he linked up a one-two with Govers before hammering a reverse stick across the goal face and Wickham was instinctively positioned to dive and turn the ball in.
In the 19th minute it was 2-0 when Govers showed he has not lost any of his potency as he scored a trademark drag flick from a penalty corner, continuing his phenomenal strike rate with his 97th goal in his 112th appearance.
Govers’ drag flick partner in crime Hayward then got in on the act in the shadows of half time with another well executed finish to make it a three goal advantage.
The Kookaburras continued to control the tempo in the second half but the plucky Malaysians were proving difficult and frustrating to break through.
Goalkeeper Johan Durst stood firm on the Kookaburras’ last line of defence to secure a clean sheet in just his fourth international as neither side was able to add to the score line.
Further to the three debutants making their first appearance, also pleasingly for Coach Colin Batch is that this series provides game time to others of the Kookaburras’ younger and less experienced brigade who have been starved of international competition.
“We are delighted to play again,” said Batch after the win.
“The boys have obviously been really keen to play and Malaysia were good enough to come here so we really enjoyed the contest.”
“Tom (Wickham) gave us the dream start but as you would expect we were a bit rusty and Malaysia made it difficult to break them down.”
“We’ve had some really good inter squad games but there’s nothing like an international and that’s what we saw today. Malaysia do things differently so we’ll learn from this game, move forward and continue to expose our younger players in the remainder of the series.”
“To have Craig, Ky and James debut was fantastic and they will be better for the run. They are still really young and would have had some nerves and expectations of performing well, but it was good to have them involved in a win first up.”
Batch confirmed goalkeeper Ben Rennie would make his Kookaburras debut in Match 2 tomorrow. Pushback for Match 2 is at 4pm local time (6pm AEST).
Tickets are on sale now and every match of the series is livestreamed on LIVEHockey.
Match Details
Kookaburras 3 (Wickham 1’, Govers 19’, Hayward 30’)
Malaysia 0
@ Perth Hockey Stadium
Kookaburras: 4.Jake Harvie, 5.Tom Wickham, 7.Nathan Ephraums, 8.Johan Durst (gk), 9.Jacob Anderson, 11.Eddie Ockenden (c), 12.Jake Whetton, 13.Blake Govers, 14.Dylan Martin, 16.Tim Howard, 19.Craig Marais, 20.Ky Willott, 21.Jack Welch, 22.Flynn Ogilvie, 23.Daniel Beale, 26.James Collins, 32.Jeremy Hayward
Unused Substitutes: 18.Ben Rennie (gk)
