The Kookaburras put in a lacklustre performance to lose 1-0 to Belgium in game three of the Rio Olympics hockey tournament.
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It is the Kookaburras second loss of the tournament and they sit fourth in their group, with the top four qualifying for the quarter-finals.
Maitland’s Simon Orchard and Newcastle’s Matt Dawson both took part in the game, with Orchard instrumental in securing a penalty corner.
The Belgians scored one minute into the second quarter with Tanguy Cosyns making an easy tap in at the far post past goalkeeper Andrew Charter after a square pass from Thomas Briels.
Seven minutes into the third and a great piece of work by Orchard and a dive from Jamie Dwyer resulted in a much needed penalty corner for the Australian’s, but the flick went too high.
Going into the final quarter and the Aussies needed to fight back, and fight back hard.
With two minutes in they did that, and the Aussies were up for their fourth penalty corner of the game. Daniel Beale injected, but the hit from Blake Govers went just wide.
Glenn Turner did a huge piece of work to get down into the Australian circle, and with Belgium defense less than five metres away, a penalty corner was awarded. Dwyer injected, and Chris Ciriello took the hit, but it was another miss for the Aussies.
The Kookaburras face Great Britain on Thursday at 8am and will be eager for a win to finishing ahead of the Brits and ensure a better match-up in the quarter-finals, which begin on Sunday night.
Game five of the series pits the Australians against host nation Brazil on Saturday at 9.30am.
