| Sports |
PNG men and women thrashed in hockey
AUSTRALIA men’s hockey team, the
Kookaburras opened the Oceania Cup with a record 35-0 win over
Papua New Guinea on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland on Tuesday.
Our women, who had just won the silver medal at the Apia SP
Games, were no better, going down to New Zealand 25-0 in the
earlier match at Buderim, Queensland.
AAP reported that the men’s result included eight goals from
Jamie Dwyer and seven from Matthew Naylor.
The Australians were quick to open the scoring with a Naylor
drag flick from a penalty corner in the 3rd minute.
A moment later Grant Schubert made it 2-0 when he found space in
the circle for a field goal.
The next goal came from Aaron Hopkins from a penalty corner,
before Dwyer joined the score card with a well struck field goal
and Grant Schubert chimed in for his second and the Kookaburra’s
number five.
It was then three more in three minutes when Schubert found an
unmarked Dwyer for his second and Naylor scored another two,
each from the field.
Andrew Smith then found the back of the net twice, Dwyer scored
another three, including his 100th for Australia, and Schubert
once again troubled the scorers.
Dave Guest scored the Kookaburra’s fifteenth goal from a corner
and then with a little over 10 minutes to go Dean Butler sent a
reverse stick shot firing into the net to take the lead to 16-0.
In the last minutes before half-time, Guest scored another and
Brooks two more before Smith made it 20-0 at the break.
The Kookaburras opened the second half scoring with a penalty
corner goal from Guest, then Eglington chalked up his first for
the night before a Dwyer tomahawk took his personal tally to six
and the Kookaburras to 23.
Mark Knowles then added himself to the scorers list, Guest and
Naylor each flicked another past the keeper and Dwyer added
another. The next scores again came from Naylor and Dwyer and
with fifteen minutes left on the clock, the Kookaburras held a
29-goal advantage.
Andrew Smith scored the Australian’s next before Liam de Young
became the Kookaburras 11th player to join the scorecard. From
there, Eglington added his second, Naylor his sixth and Smith
his fifth.
The final goal came from Matt Naylor in the final minutes of the
match, the Kookaburras opening the Oceania Cup with a record
35-0 victory.
“It was pleasing to have maintained a reasonable degree of
concentration, given the circumstances,” Kookaburras coach Barry
Dancer said of the mis-match.
“We shared the ball around well and kept good structure. I
thought we played with an appropriate level of respect for our
opposition.”
Earlier the Hockeyroos opened their Oceania Cup campaign with a
14-0 win over Fiji and the New Zealand women’s team defeated
Papua New Guinea 25-0.
The Kookaburras face New Zealand on Friday in their second round
match of the Oceania Cup at 6.30pm AEST. – AAP
 
|
