Australia’s Women’s and Men’s teams have won the inaugural Hockey5s Oceania Cup on the Gold Coast, qualifying for next year’s Hockey5s World Cup in the process.
Both sides went through the tournament undefeated, although they were pushed all the way by New Zealand in the round robin stage and the respective gold medal matches.
After breezing through their matches against Tonga, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, the Australian Women’s Team’s big test was always going to come against New Zealand. And so it proved as the Australians prevailed in hard fought contests.
In the Women’s Final, Eva Kersnovske and Madeline Dooley put Australia two goals up inside six minutes, before New Zealand captain Oriwa Hepi quickly pegged a goal back. The deficit remained at one and the match was delicately poised until Dooley scored her second and the sealer in the 19th minute to secure the 3-1 win and the title.
“To go into the World Cup as the number one team from Oceania gives us the best chance to do well,” said Australian Women’s Hockey5s Coach Keegan Popowski.
“We tried to work on different things with each game and I think it all came together in the Final. The girls bought into everything we were trying to do, they took a selfless approach and backed each other to take risks on the pitch and cover each other.”
“The culture and values they have set will put the team in a really good place for Hockey5s moving forward. There is a lot of growth to be had.”
“With Hockey5s, no one can be a passenger and it’s exciting for the other Oceania Cup countries as well because it’s easier for them to develop ten players rather than the numbers we have available in Australia.”
“There were some adjustments some of these countries made from their first game to their last game which made them more competitive throughout the tournament. In terms enabling all countries to be competitive, Hockey5s is an exciting format.”
The Men’s Final to conclude the event was a thriller. After amassing double figures in their first four round robin matches, the Australian Men’s Team put seven goals past Papua New Guinea before edging out New Zealand 4-3 to finish top heading into the semi finals.
A resounding 10-0 win over the Solomon Islands set up another showdown with New Zealand for the gold medal. In the Final, New Zealand stunned the hosts as they shot out to a 3-0 lead after eight minutes. Goals from Australia’s Zac Profke and Jake McCann in the 9th and 10th minutes respectively cut into New Zealand’s lead to make it 3-2 to New Zealand at half time.
Profke equalised just after the resumption before putting Australia in front for the first time with his hat-trick in the 14th minute. However, New Zealand’s James Hickson hit back with his third of the game a minute later to make it 4-4.
Australian captain Liam Kerr-Nelson then proved the match winner as he struck twice in the final three minutes to give his team a tense 6-4 victory.
Australian Hockey5s Men’s Coach Alistair Park said it was fantastic learning experience for his group.
“The big focus going into it was that we knew we hadn’t been able to spend much time together, so we wanted to maximise the opportunity to learn. Having that strong respect for each other plays a key role in the development of groups,” said Park.
“The endeavour of the other teams was first class but the results over the course of the tournament were probably a reflection of where hockey is in our region. That is why these tournaments are so important because it gives them this exposure.”
“We wanted to have a strong focus on seeing if we could put the ball into the back of the net, but a big part of our learning across the week was that when we go the World Cup things will be a lot more challenging.”
“Having those matches against New Zealand near the end of the tournament was really useful because we had to tailor our method around being smarter with creating valuable goal opportunities, rather than just the volume of opportunities we created.”
“On reflection in the Final, the game was pretty even in the first half but we found ourselves three-nil down, so to the boys’ credit they kept doing the things that we spoke about in creating good scoring opportunities.
“We hit the post a number of times so there was a really strong belief from the guys to work their way through it and find answers to the questions they were being posed.”
Every match of the tournament was livestreamed on LIVEHockey.
The women’s and men’s teams of New Zealand and Fiji also qualified for the Hockey5s World Cup by finishing on the podium.
The 2024 FIH Hockey5s World Cup is set to be played in Muscat, Oman from 24-31 January 2024, with 16 nations competing in both the women’s and men’s competitions.
2023 Hockey5s Oceania Cup Women’s Results
Australian Women’s Results
10 July – Australia 12-0 Tonga
11 July – Australia 11-0 Vanuatu
12 July – Australia 8-0 Solomon Islands
12 July – Australia 6-1 Fiji
13 July – Australia 6-2 New Zealand
13 July – Australia 14-0 Papua New Guinea
14 July – Australia 12-1 Papua New Guinea (Semi-Final)
14 July – New Zealand 1-3 Australia (Final)
2023 Hockey5s Oceania Cup Men’s Results
Australian Men’s Results
10 July – Australia 11-2 Solomon Islands
11 July – Australia 10-3 Fiji
11 July – Australia 16-2 Vanuatu
12 July – Australia 11-0 Tonga
12 July – Australia 7-2 Papua New Guinea
13 July – Australia 4-3 New Zealand
14 July – Australia 10-0 Solomon Islands
14 July – New Zealand 4-6 Australia
Australian Hockey5s Teams
Women’s Team
Madeline Dooley (ACT), Tegan Neowhouse (gk) (NSW), Holly Gilbar (QLD), Eva Kersovnoske (QLD), Jessica Moffat (QLD), Samantha Morris (QLD), Dacia Koelmeyer (VIC), Jayde Temby (gk) (VIC), Jamie Zimmerman (VIC), Sienna Berry (WA)
Coach: Keegan Popowski
Men’s Team
Logan Hunter (gk) (NSW), Jake McCann (NSW), Zac Profke (QLD), Jun Sugio (QLD), Joshua Commins (TAS), Liam Kerr-Nelson (VIC), Nathan McDonald (VIC), Mitchell Pace (WA), Callum Bridge (VIC), Jake McCann (NSW)
Coach: Alistair Park
What is Hockey5s
First played in preparation for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games, Hockey5s is a super-fast, highly skilful, short format of hockey which is designed to be adaptable to multiple surfaces, environments and space. Hockey5s is an invasion game played between two teams with 4 field players and a goalkeeper. More information
