A devastating spell of six goals in 17 minutes had the Kookaburras hitting the ground running on Sunday in their quest for Olympic qualification at the Hockey World League in Belgium.
The tone was set for the 10-0 victory over 18th-ranked France when the world champions opened the scoring in just the third minute through Kieran Govers.
A seven-minute hiatus followed before the Australian men struck gold with five goals in 10 minutes, including a second for Govers and an audacious lob from Matt Gohdes that looped over the goalkeeper and dropped under the crossbar.
In the second half, Australia added a further four goals.
The result puts the Kookaburras on top of Pool A after the first full round of matches, ahead of India and Pakistan on goal difference in the race for quarter-final places.
Coach Graham Reid was pleased with how his side began the tournament.
"Given how good that French team can be, I couldn't be happier as far as the result's concerned.
"We tried again to cement some of the things we've been working on over the last couple of weeks and it's pleasing to see that some of those are starting to show in the way that we're playing.
"One of our KPIs is that we should be able to look at the first minute of the game and the 60th minute and they should be the same. I think if we look at the video today, it would have shown that. That's what we're chasing and that's what we need to do, continuously, to be a threat."
After Govers opened the scoring, Jamie Dwyer showed why he was still rated among the best in the modern game with a reverse stick strike on the run from an acute angle.
And a minute later, Dwyer's cousin Gohdes had the crowd marvelling at the audacity of his slapped lob shot that looped over the onrushing goalkeeper and under the crossbar.
Two-time Olympian and double World Cup winner Fergus Kavanagh celebrated his 200th appearance for the Kookaburras, who wore black armbands as a mark of remembrance for South Australian hockey junior Jackson Tudhope, killed recently in a car accident returning from the state championships.
Next up, the Kookaburras are likely to face a stern test on Wednesday (0400 AEST, Thursday) from 10th-ranked Pakistan, who narrowly overcame Poland 2-1 in their opening match on Saturday.
Share
