HOCKEY: Australia and Great Britain played out the game of the Australian Youth Olympic Festival (AYOF) hockey tournament so far as Australia came from behind twice to claim a hard fought 6-4 victory.

Great Britain went in front in the third minute with a penalty corner from captain Andrew Bull and had chances to extend that advantage.

Australia hit back in the tenth minute when Jack Elliot netted his first goal for the match before he doubled his tally six minutes later when he converted a penalty corner.

Just when Australia looked to have all the momentum, the game was turned on its head when Great Britain scored twice in three minutes with goals to Ross Gilham-Jones and Daniel Faulkner to put them 3-2 ahead.

Australia responded straight after the restart with a field goal scored by Will Gilmour which left the match evenly poised at 3-3 at half time.

The second half was much of the same as the goals continued to flow with Dylan Wotherspoon scoring to put the Burra’s back in front 4-3 just three minutes after the break.

Great Britain refused to back down and found the answer yet again through a penalty corner scored by Phil Roper which tied it up at 4-4, but it didn’t last long as Australia replied the very next minute with a stunning finish that saw Elliot register his first Australian hat trick.

Cameron Joyce’s 63rd minute penalty corner was enough to see Australia over the line with a gutsy 6-4 win.

Jack Elliot was ecstatic after leading his team to victory with three quality goals.

“I love scoring goals and it’s even better when you get a hat trick for your country and get a win,” he said.

Great Britain’s Ross Gilham-Jones said despite going down he and teammates will take plenty from this encounter.

“It was tough, we played some cracking hockey as a team,” he said. “We’ve played three matches against them now and we’ve come close each time so hopefully we get a crack at them in the final on Sunday.

The final round robin games are to be played on Saturday when Australia play Malaysia and Great Britain tussle with USA.

Beau Greenway
Olympics.com.au 

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