Tigers get four back for assault on finals

THE Tassie Tigers have regained Kookaburras Eddie Ockenden, Jeremy Edwards, Josh Beltz and Jack Welch for their Australian Hockey League finals campaign.

The team topped their pool group and will tackle the Northern Territory Stingers at 1pm on the Gold Coast tomorrow in vice-captain Tim Deavin’s 100th AHL appearance. Head coach Glenn Freeman will fly out with an extended 16-player squad bolstered by the return of skipper Ockenden and Co from a Kookaburras World Cup preparation camp.

“We head into the finals with a lot of confidence and getting Eddie, Jez, Josh and Jack all back is tremendous, but we can’t look any further than the Stingers on Thursday,” Freeman said.

“Winning our pool group undefeated means we have a favourable quarter-final draw and beating the Queensland Blades 5-1 in warm conditions in Brisbane last week has turned out to be ideal preparation for this week.”

While the Kookaburras stars headline the inclusions, debutant Benji Austin was retained in the Tigers squad with Linden McCarthy and Gobindraj Gill omitted and Kurt Mackey unavailable.

The Van Demons have stuck with the same 14 that lost 15-0 to the Queensland Scorchers on Saturday, adding Nicole Geeves and Nellie Paynter to their group.

“Our quarter-final opponents are the Victorian Vipers, led by Rachael Lynch in goal, and we need to ensure we use the ball better than we did against Queensland,” coach Ilene Carr said.

The Van Demons face the Vipers at 4.30pm.