Time to Reset for Kookaburras Under Coach Mark Hager After Disappointing Olympic Campaign!
Australian men’s hockey team have set really high standards on the world stage – they relish ‘winning consistently and winning big’. Given the team’s lofty standards, their sixth-place finish at the 2024 Paris Olympics was nothing short of a ‘big disappointment’ – an Olympic quarterfinal exit is a rarity for the high-performing Kookaburras – a side that had won the Pro League earlier in the year.
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The sixth-place finish at the 2024 Paris Olympics was their worst performance since the 1960 Rome Olympics and the 2016 Rio Olympics where they had also finished sixth. It is only in five Olympics that Australia have failed to reach the semifinals – they had also finished 5th on their Olympic debut in 1956 at Melbourne as well as settling for a fifth-place finish at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
The Kookaburras are also going through a bit of transition – experienced goalkeeper Andrew Charter, defender Matt Dawson, and Paris Olympics captain and midfielder Aran Zalewski have announced their retirements – the likes of world’s third-most capped player Eddie Ockenden, Thomas Wickham, and Jacob Whetton are well into their thirties. However, the team still have a decent talent pool in the likes of Nathan Ephraums, Blake Govers, Jeremy Hayward, Lachlan Sharp, Matthew Dawson among others.
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The yellow brigade would hope for a ‘fresh beginning’ under coach Mark Hager, who has taken over from his fellow Aussie team-mate Colin Batch. The Queenslander brings the right credentials to propel Kookaburras to new heights on the world stage.
Hager, who is Australia’s second highest all-time goal-scorer (179 goals) and made 231 international appearances, is one the legends of the game – a member of the 1986 London World Cup-winning team, he captained Australia to a bronze medal finish at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He was also a member of the 1994 World Cup bronze-winning team.
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The Pro League champions would strive to raise the performance bar under Hager, who has attained success as New Zealand and Great Britain women’s team coaches. The former prolific forward spent close to a decade with the Black Sticks eves’ team and took up the coaching reins when New Zealand was going through a low phase after they settled for the wooden spoon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Hager transformed the Black Sticks eves’ team and guided them into the semifinals of the 2012 London Olympics where they lost to the Netherlands in a shootout after holding the Dutch 2-2 in regulation time before subsequently losing the bronze medal play-off tie against Great Britain. Under Hager, the Black Sticks eves made back-to-back semifinal appearance at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where a medal was denied by Germany in a 1-2 defeat in the bronze medal play-off tie. To top it all, he coached New Zealand women to its maiden Commonwealth Games gold in the 2018 edition at Gold Coast. Hager also achieved a fair amount of success as coach of the Great Britain women’s team propelling them to a bronze medal finish at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics as well as the 2021-22 Pro League.
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The Kookaburras would have high expectations from the high-performing Hager and look to prove that the national team have brushed aside the Paris Olympics disappointment by coming out all guns blazing in their first international assignment in early 2025 in the Pro League with matches against Spain and the Netherlands at Sydney.
Kookaburras Coaches Over Time
| Coach | Timeline |
| Colin Batch | December 2016-August 2024 |
| Graham Reid | September 2014-October 2016 |
| Ric Charlesworth | October 2008-March 2014 |
| Barry Dancer | 2001-September 2008 |
| Terry Walsh | 1998-2000 |
| Frank Murray | 1989-1998 |
| Richard Aggiss | 1981-1988 |
