Hockey World Cup 2023: Australia Team Profile

Among the favourites to win the Men's World Cup every time the tournament comes around, Australia are the joint second-most successful team in the history of the tournament along with the Netherlands. While they are among the most feared sides in the world, Australia had rather humble beginnings in their World Cup journey.

Australia finished a lowly eighth in the inaugural 1971 World Cup and then had to withdraw from the next edition despite qualifying due to a lack of funds. Since then, however, Australia have asserted their dominance. They have reached at least the semi-finals of every edition of the World Cup since 1978.

The Kookaburras finally won their first title at London 1986, finishing third in three consecutive tournaments before and two more consecutive tournaments after. Between 2002 and 2014, Australia reached the final in four consecutive editions.

Australia won the title on two of those occasions - in 2010 and 2014 - and thus became the third team after Pakistan and Germany to have defended their World Cup title. Australia's consecutive run of finals ended at Bhubaneshwar 2018 after they were beaten by the Netherlands in the semi-finals via a penalty shootout. They then thrashed England 8-1 to win the third-place playoff.