Australia: Kookaburras return from Europe
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| Hockey Australia |
August 28, 2005 
Hockey Australia
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by Hockey Australia.
The Kookaburras have returned from their European tour with second in both the Hamburg Masters and Rabobank Trophy.
While happy with the tour overall, they will be disappointed not to have won the Rabobank Trophy where they were the form team of the tournament and led Pakistan 3-2 at half time, but a poor second half saw them go down 4-3 in the final.
While disappointed with the result in the final, national coach Barry Dancer was happy with the tour and the opportunities it gave many of his charges.
"This tour was always designed to provide an important staging point for development of our team towards the Champions Trophy, which is our prime target for 2005. To this end it proved very valuable in assessing our needs and providing excellent development opportunities on tour," he said.
"The AIS Team departs on the 12th September for Korea and Japan with five matches scheduled against each of the national squads in those countries...After this tour the teams for the World Cup Qualifier and the Champions Trophy will be selected."
The AIS team, made up of Junior World Cup, Development and National squad players, will play tour Korea and Japan from 12 September - 1 October.
The Kookaburras will play their World Cup Qualifier against Fiji and New Zealand, in Fiji, from 15-19 November. From there it's on to Kuala Lumpur for some lead up matches to the Champions Trophy in India from 10-18 December.
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