Australian Country Venom and Wattles 21s on Tour in Thailand

Back
Australian Country 21s arrived in Bangkok earlier this week following a less than smooth transfer from Australia … flight cancellations and delays certainly complicated things. Following an early morning training session the teas were up against the Thai national squads for the first game of a four game series. Both teams recorded 3-0 losses in tough games where the scores did not necessarily reflect the games. Battling tiredness and with only one training session together both teams were ‘under the pump’ from the outset.
The Thai national squads, both men and women played an outstanding brand of organised, fast, skilled hockey to put the Aussies on the back foot from the start.
The Wattles fought very hard throughout the game after conceding a goal early in the first quarter with keeper Regan Smith thwarting many circle penetrations by the locals. Despite the resolute defence of the Wattles, the Thai nationals score twice more in the second half and Wattles coach Dan Knapp, commented “The game today was just a starting point for the team and laid the foundation for developing their structure, confidence in each other commitment to team”.
A spectacular shot from the edge of the circle which blasted past the right shoulder of keeper Jack Westcott gave the Thais a 1-0 lead over Venom just before half time.
From there Venom tried to penetrate the Thai defence but found circle entries very hard to come by. Thailand completed a convincing result with 2 well worked lovely goals which defied the efforts of outstanding keeper Bayden King.
That result led to significant reflection from the Venom players.
The second game was less than 24 hours after the first and Venom came out a completely different unit. Captain Riley Burgess won the toss and his team denied the Thais possession for the first couple of minutes with skilled, precise movement of the ball.
Ballarat’s Tyson Jones played a key role as an outside defender along with Bendigo’s Deacon Evans. The pair worked with Mitch Waechter and Mildura’s Toby Edlington to shut down the previously powerful and dangerous Thai strikers.
The game was scoreless at the half, but in the third quarter a piece of brilliance from Geelong’s Jake Whitford saw him dispossess his Thai defender inside the 23 metre area.
With Ballarat’s Joshua Sly providing a valuable foil, Jake found space in the circle and slammed home a beautiful goal.
Australia held the advantage until a Thai penalty corner saw the game back on level terms.
Australia then shifted into attacking overdrive, pressuring the world’s number 56 ranked team in an effort to get back in the lead.
Chances to Ewan Wightman-Gonzales, Joshua Sly and Brock Wise all went unrewarded.
The score remained 1-1, but it was Venom who had made all the running in the final minutes.
As with Venom, the Wattles came out with a strong intent to take it up to their hosts and for much of the game controlled the play but were unable to convert the circle penetrations whereas the Thai National Team were able to make the most of the opportunities and finished 5-1 victors. The final score was not indicative of the standard of the game. Once again Regan and her defenders were under pressure and defended well against a very fit, organised and determined attack. The Wattles midfield were outstanding with Shelby Giorlando, Emmie Searl and Charli Corbin providing support for the defence and setting up many forward moves. Ally Cook kept the local defence under pressure and scored the Wattles’ first goal of the tour when she was able to convert an opportunity resulting from great teamwork.
Real Time Analytics