TASMANIAN Kookaburra teammates Eddie Ockenden, Tim Deavin and Nick Budgeon will be at the forefront of the national team's push for a grand final berth at the World League Finals in India.
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The Kookaburras progressed to the semi-finals with a 7-2 victory over their Indian host and will meet the Netherlands, conquerors of Germany, in their semi-final to be played early this morning.
The Aussie men overcame a 2-0 deficit against India with Budgeon scoring the first of the seven goals with a penalty corner.
Kookaburras' head coach Ric Charlesworth said afterwards:`` It was a messy start but a terrific, solid performance through the middle of the game.
``Some brilliant hockey was played and anybody who saw that would have been impressed by some of the skill.
``A lot of goals were so well constructed it was simply a case of pushing into an empty goal. They were the best chances and you don't usually get so many of them.''
Looking ahead to the semi-final against the Netherlands he added:`` It will be a different sort of game, very tough. We know and expect that.''
Speaking about his 100th appearance for the Kookaburras, Glenn Turner said:`` It's a very proud moment. To be part of such a great sporting team in Australia that's had so much success to play 100 games for them is something I never dreamed of.''
Another Australian goal scorer Simon Orchard said the noise of the Delhi crowd was deafening.
``There weren't that many people in here but it was so loud.
``It's awesome to play in front of a crowd like that and I think they [India] feed off that a lot, as we would but we just don't experience things like that in Australia.
England meets New Zealand in the other semi-final.