Australia men's national field hockey team

Australia

Nickname(s)	The Kookaburras
Association	Hockey Australia
Confederation	OHF (Oceania)
Head Coach	Mark Hager
Assistant coach(es)	Robert Hammond Mark Knowles Eddie Ockenden David Staniforth
Manager	Melissa Grey
Most caps	Edward Ockenden (451)
Top scorer	Jamie Dwyer (244)
Home Away
FIH ranking
Current	3 (4 October 2026)[1]
Highest	1 (2005, 2010–2011, 2014 – January 2017, December 2017 – July 2018, June 2019 – January 2020)
Lowest	6 (2023, August 2024)
First international
New Zealand  5–4  Australia (Palmerston North, New Zealand; 27 September 1922)[2]
Biggest win
Australia  36–0  Samoa (Stratford, New Zealand; 24 October 2015)
Biggest defeat
Australia  1–12  India (Melbourne, Australia; 17 August 1935)
Olympic Games
Appearances	17 (first in 1956)
Best result	1st (2004)
World Cup
Appearances	15 (first in 1971)
Best result	1st (1986, 2010, 2014)
Oceania Cup
Appearances	12 (first in 1999)
Best result	1st (1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2023)
Medal record Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 1 4 5 World Cup 3 2 5 Oceania Cup 12 0 0 Champions Trophy 15 10 5 Commonwealth Games 7 0 0 Hockey World League 2 0 0 Pro League 2 1 1 Total 42 17 16 Olympic Games 2004 Athens Team 1968 Mexico City Team 1976 Montreal Team 1992 Barcelona Team 2020 Tokyo Team 1964 Tokyo Team 1996 Atlanta Team 2000 Sydney Team 2008 Beijing Team 2012 London Team World Cup 1986 London 2010 New Delhi 2014 The Hague 2002 Kuala Lumpur 2006 Mönchengladbach 1978 Buenos Aires 1982 Bombay 1990 Lahore 1994 Sydney 2018 Bhubaneswar Oceania Cup 1999 Brisbane 2001 Melbourne 2003 Christchurch–Wellington 2005 Suva 2007 Buderim 2009 Invercargill 2011 Hobart 2013 Stratford 2015 Stratford 2017 Sydney 2019 Rockhampton 2023 Whangarei Champions Trophy 1983 Karachi 1984 Karachi 1985 Perth 1989 Berlin 1990 Melbourne 1993 Kuala Lumpur 1999 Brisbane 2005 Chennai 2008 Rotterdam 2009 Melbourne 2010 Mönchengladbach 2011 Auckland 2012 Melbourne 2016 London 2018 Breda 1978 Lahore 1981 Karachi 1982 Amstelveen 1986 Lahore 1992 Karachi 1995 Berlin 1997 Adelaide 2001 Rotterdam 2003 Amstelveen 2007 Kuala Lumpur 1980 Karachi 1987 Amstelveen 1988 Lahore 1998 Lahore 2014 Bhubaneswar Commonwealth Games 1998 Kuala Lumpur Team 2002 Manchester Team 2006 Melbourne Team 2010 New Delhi Team 2014 Glasgow Team 2018 Gold Coast Team 2022 Birmingham Team Hockey World League 2014–15 Raipur Team 2016–17 Bhubaneswar Team

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 six straight Summer Olympic Games (1992–2012). The Kookaburras placed in the top four in every Olympics between 1980 and 2012 winning gold in 2004; in 2016, the Kookaburras placed sixth.^[3] They won the Hockey World Cup in 1986, 2010 and 2014. They won the Hockey Champions Trophy 15 times, the most by any team. They also won the Pro League and World League twice each.

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,^[4] finally broken in 2004 with the win in Athens. However, they failed to win Gold after that after losses in subsequent Olympics including a loss to Belgium in the Gold Medal Match of 2020 Tokyo Olympics - the Kookaburras instead won the silver medal.^[5]

This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: It is missing the information on the last eight-plus years (since early 2012 at the latest). Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (September 2020)

Australia's first men's team competed in an international match in 1922.^[6]

Australia's first men's team competed at the Olympics in field hockey at the 1956 Summer Olympics.^[7]

The first major competition won by the national team was the 1983 World Championships held in Karachi.^[7]

Australia did not medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics^[8] or the 1988 Summer Olympics.^[9] At the 1992 Summer Olympics, Australia earned a silver medal, losing gold to Germany.^[10] At the 1996 Summer Olympics, Australia finished third, earning a bronze medal.^[11]

The team won their first Olympic gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Barry Dancer coached the side.^[12]

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.

• 
  Australia at the 2008 Olympics
• 
  Australia at the 2012 Olympics

Roster for the 2026 Men's FIH Hockey World Cup.^[20][21]

Head coach: Mark Hager

• Ric Charlesworth
• Jamie Dwyer

The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

  Win   Draw   Loss   Fixture

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.^[12][22]

• 1981: Australian Sport Awards Team of the Year^[23]
• 1987: Australian Sport Awards Team of the Year^[23]
• 2004: Australian Sport Awards International Team of the Year^[23]
• 2014: AIS Sport Performance Awards Team of the Year.^[24]

General sources

Further reading

• The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games n.d., Tokyo 2020, olympics.com. Retrieved 3 August 2021.

• Official website
• FIH profile