Kookaburras through to final

Australia is through to Sunday’s final of the men’s hockey tournament after thrashing Malaysia 6-0 in this afternoon’s semi-final at the State Netball and Hockey Centre.

The Aussies always looked in control and the biggest threat offensively, but for the first half hour the Malaysians played good defence and managed to keep the Kookaburras scoreless.

But with five minutes left in the half, Malaysia conceded a contentious penalty stroke, which led to the Malaysian players and coaching staff – led by captain Kuhan Shanmuganathan – abusing the umpire who gave the decision.

The kerfuffle only delayed the inevitable, with stand-in captain Brent Livermore converting from the spot to put the hosts one goal up going into half-time.

After only putting one goal past Malaysia’s impressive keeper Ibrahim Mohd Nasihin in the first half, Australia made the second half hell for the visitors by piling on five second-half goals to tear the game apart.

First Livermore converted a second penalty stroke which led to Nasihin being substituted, then livewire Jamie Dwyer planted a shot from a penalty corner past replacement keeper Kumar Subramaniam to put the result beyond doubt at 3-0 with almost 20 minutes to go.

A goal to Liam De Young and a brace to Luke Doerner rounded out the six-goal drubbing, with Australia to face the winner of tonight’s semi-final between Pakistan and England.

Despite having faced and beaten England already during the Games, midfielder Nathan Eglington doesn’t have a preference for who the defending Games champions will play in on Sunday.

“Either way, we’re playing good enough hockey to tinker with a few things depending on who it is, to fit our game and out style that we want to play against either of the teams, he said.

“We just have to make sure that we turn up to play to make sure that we give ourselves the best chance of a result.”

Pakistan will tackle Australia for gold this Sunday after they overcame England in a 2-1 extra-time thriller in today's second semi.

Shakeel Abbasi struck the match-winner only three minutes into overtime.

Shakeel had earlier propelled Pakistan into the lead after 54 minutes with a superb strike, while Matt Daly tied up the ball game inside the final two minutes to send the match into extra time.

The final will be played from 1pm EDT this Sunday at the State Netball and Hockey Centre.

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