Australia men's national field hockey team
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Nickname | Kookaburras | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Association | Hockey Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Confederation | OHF (Oceania) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coach | Colin Batch | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Assistant coach(es) | Anthony Potter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manager | Nathan Eglington | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Captain | Aran Zalewski | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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FIH ranking | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Current |
1 |
The Australia men's national field hockey team (nicknamed the Kookaburras) is one of the nation's most successful top-level sporting teams. They are the only Australian team in any sport to receive medals at the last six Summer Olympic Games (1992–2012). The Kookaburras placed in the top four in every Olympics between 1980 and 2012; in 2016, the Kookaburras placed sixth.[1] They also won the Hockey World Cup in 1986, 2010 and 2014.
The Kookaburras' inability to win an Olympic gold medal despite their perennial competitiveness, led many in the Australian hockey community to speak of a "curse" afflicting the team,[2] finally broken in 2004 with the win in Athens.
History
Australia's first men's team competed in an international match in 1922.[3]
The first major competition won by the national team was the 1983 World Championships held in Karachi.[4]
Participations
Australia's first men's team competed at the Olympics in field hockey at the 1956 Summer Olympics.[4]
Australia did not medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics[5] or the 1988 Summer Olympics.[6] At the 1992 Summer Olympics, Australia earned a silver medal, losing gold to Germany.[7] At the 1996 Summer Olympics, Australia finished third, earning a bronze medal.[8]
The team won their first Olympic gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Barry Dancer coached the side.[9]
Should Australia win the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics they will become the first national team in field hockey history to hold all four international titles available to them simultaneously. They would hold titles in the 2012 Olympics, 2010 World Cup, 2011 Champions Trophy and their continental championship (2011 Oceania Cup) at the same time. Along with those four titles Australia also holds the Commonwealth Games title from the 2010 championships.
Tournament records
Team
Current roster
The following is the Australia squad for the 2018 Champions Trophy in Breda, Netherlands.[18]
No. | Pos. | Player | Date of birth (age) | Caps | Club | |||
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8 | GK | Johan Durst | 0 | |||||
24 | GK | Tyler Lovell | 75 | |||||
4 | DF | Jake Harvie | 27 | |||||
7 | DF | Jeremy Edwards | 54 | |||||
16 | DF | Tim Howard | 15 | |||||
20 | DF | Matthew Swann | 165 | |||||
32 | DF | Jeremy Hayward | 78 | |||||
1 | MF | Lachlan Sharp | 18 | |||||
2 | MF | Tom Craig | 28 | |||||
11 | MF | Eddie Ockenden | 284 | |||||
17 | MF | Aran Zalewski | 106 | |||||
22 | MF | Flynn Ogilvie | 50 | |||||
23 | MF | Daniel Beale | 96 | |||||
12 | FW | Jake Whetton | 123 | |||||
13 | FW | Blake Govers | 38 | |||||
14 | FW | Aaron Kleinschmidt | 18 | |||||
25 | FW | Trent Mitton | 102 | |||||
29 | FW | Tim Brand | 0 |
The remainder of the 2018 national squad is as follows:[19]
No. | Pos. | Player | Date of birth (age) | Caps | Club | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
30 | GK | Andrew Charter | 122 | |||||
DF | Joshua Simmonds | 0 | ||||||
3 | DF | Corey Weyer | 14 | |||||
6 | DF | Matthew Dawson | 71 | |||||
10 | DF | Joshua Beltz | 28 | |||||
18 | DF | Tristan White | 102 | |||||
27 | FW | Kieran Govers | 116 | |||||
5 | FW | Tom Wickham | 12 | |||||
26 | FW | Dylan Wotherspoon | 70 |
Notable players
Family
Barry Dancer/Brent Dancer and Ric Charlesworth/Jonathan Charlesworth are two pairs of father as coach and son as player while both were affiliated with the national team in those positions.[9][20]
Recognition
- 1981 - Australian Sport Awards Team of the Year[21]
- 1987 - Australian Sport Awards Team of the Year[21]
- 2004 - Australian Sport Awards International Team of the Year[21]
- 2014 - AIS Sport Performance Awards Team of the Year.[22]
References
- ↑ ABC (15 August 2016). "Rio 2016: Australia's Kookaburras and Sharks knocked out of men's hockey and water polo". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
- ↑ "Kookaburras ready to toss the monkey". Sydney Morning Herald. 26 August 2004. Archived from the original on 27 July 2009. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
- ↑ Epstein, Jackie (21 October 2009). "Dwyer breaks free of Holland binds – Australia always comes first". Herald Sun. Melbourne, Australia. p. 76. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
- 1 2 Department of Sport, Recreation and Tourism; Australian Sport Commission (1985). Australian Sport, a profile. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Publish Service. pp. 177–178. ISBN 0644036672.
- ↑ Dorling Kindersley Limited. (1999). The Olympic Games. St. Leonards, N.S.W.: Dorling Kindersley. p. 320. ISBN 1864660635. OCLC 57337092.
- ↑ Dorling Kindersley Limited. (1999). The Olympic Games. St. Leonards, N.S.W.: Dorling Kindersley. p. 327. ISBN 1864660635. OCLC 57337092.
- ↑ Dorling Kindersley Limited. (1999). The Olympic Games. St. Leonards, N.S.W.: Dorling Kindersley. p. 335. ISBN 1864660635. OCLC 57337092.
- ↑ Dorling Kindersley Limited. (1999). The Olympic Games. St. Leonards, N.S.W.: Dorling Kindersley. p. 343. ISBN 1864660635. OCLC 57337092.
- 1 2 Petrie, Andrea (18 October 2009). "Sons a chip off the old stick – HOCKEY". The Sunday Age. Melbourne, Australia. p. 19. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
- ↑ "World Cup - FIH". International Hockey Federation.
- ↑ "Champions Trophy - FIH". FIH.
- ↑ "Home - FIH".
- ↑ "Home - FIH".
- ↑ "FIH confirms Spain men and Belgium women join Hockey Pro League". FIH.
- ↑ "Home - FIH".
- ↑ "Oceania Cup". Hockey Australia.
- ↑ "Other – FIH". FIH.
- ↑ "Kookaburras' Champions Trophy Team Confirmed". Hockey Australia. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
- ↑ "Kookaburras Squad Profiles". Hockey Australia. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
- ↑ Department of Sport, Recreation and Tourism; Australian Sport Commission (1985). Australian Sport, a profile. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Publish Service. p. 116. ISBN 0644036672.
- 1 2 3 "Australian Sports Awards". Confederation of Australian Sport. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ↑ "Rabbitohs, Fearnley, Fox win top ASPAS". Australian Sports Commission News, 11 February 2015. Archived from the original on 11 February 2015. Retrieved 11 February 2015.