Kookaburras to hit it off at the Champions Trophy

 

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By JiMMM, 25 Nov 2009 JiMMM is a Roar Rookie

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 Champions Trophy hockey, hockey, Kookaburras

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We’re just a few short days away from the hit off to the 2009 version of the men’s champions trophy event in Melbourne, and with the Hockeyroos falling down the world rankings, the pressure is on the Kookaburras to perform.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the tournament, the best six teams in the world will play each other once over eight days, with an additional finals day.

The countries represented this year are (in order of world ranking) Germany, Australia, Spain, Netherlands, Korea and England.

Australia will go into this tournament as the clear favourites, given their strong form over the year, the home ground advantage, and being the defending champions. However, there are questions over the depth of the squad, with six of the squad making their international debuts, and the gap between the end of the Australian season and the tournament.

Germany, as the current Olympic champions, and current number one ranked team in the world, are going to be a strong, and will be looking to regain the champions trophy. The Germans also have the added attraction of overtaking the Kookaburras as the nation with the most titles if they win this year.

Spain, as one of the powerhouses of international hockey, will go into this tournament with nothing to lose, and have the aim of improving of their one champions trophy title.

The Netherlands, as the only nation with a professional hockey competition, will go into this tournament as a short priced challenger for the title. The Dutch team has a strong tradition of winning this tournament, winning 4 of the 9 tournaments this decade. And with arguably the best player in the world, Teun De Nooijer still playing, they cannot be written off.

Although they have appeared in the last two Champions trophy tournaments, the Korean team are the great unknown. Although the Koreans are currently ranked five in the world (no mean feat), I don’t think they are serious challengers for the title.

The last nation in is England, just scraping into the tournament ahead of Pakistan, because of their results at the Beijing games. In spite of this, England won the European Nations Cup, beating Germany and the Netherlands in the process.

If you are looking for a dark horse for this tournament, look no further, and with the added spice of it being England, it could result in some spectacular games.

So with what looks like an intriguing tournament, and the Crawford report declaring that hockey is part of the national psyche, we should be looking forward to a packed house at the State Netball and Hockey Centre in Melbourne.

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