Fresh from beating India in a penalty shoot-out to win the prestigious Champions Trophy in London earlier this month, the Australian men's hockey team have named a powerful-looking squad for Rio 2016.

“When we go to the Olympic Games as the Australian men’s hockey team we want to win, we don’t want to get bronze, just make the semis or play off for fifth,” captain Mark Knowles said when the names were announced on Wednesday (29 June).

Reigning World Cup, World League and Commonwealth champions, the world no.1-ranked Kookaburras are coming to Rio with every intention of claiming what would be only their second Olympic gold medal.

For Knowles, Rio 2016 will be his fourth Olympic Games. At Beijing 2008 and London 2012, Knowles was part of the team that could only win bronze, a massive dissapointment after gold at Athens 2004. The captain has accumulated nearly 275 caps for his country, plus five Champions Trophy titles and the International Player of the Year award in 2014. 

As well as Knowles, the 2016 Kookaburras side includes another triple Olympian, Jamie Dwyer, who has played more than 350 games for Australia and scored the winning goal in the memorable Olympic final of 2004. Dwyer and Knowles share more than over a decade of hockey successes; Knowles married Jamie Dwyer's younger sister Kelly in 2010.

At 37 years of age, Dwyer will be making history as Australia’s oldest hockey player at an Olympic Games.

Complementing the experience of Dwyer, Knowles and other returning Olympians, six Australian players will be making their Olympic debut in Rio, in a squad that totals 16 people. Young gun Blake Govers, aged just 19, will make his Olympic debut after only 12 months in the senior Australian squad.

The men's competition in Rio will begin on 6 August. In their first match, Australia will take on New Zealand. Also in the group are Great Britain, Belgium, Spain and host nation Brazil.

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The Netherlands, Germany, Argentina, India, Ireland and Canada have been drawn into the other group.

Reigning Olympic champions Germany are currently ranked no.3 in the world. The Netherlands, silver medallists from London 2012, hold the no.2 ranking. Great Britain are in fourth place, ahead of India, Belgium and Argentina.

New format

The top four teams from each two pools in Rio will progress to the quarter-finals. This is the first time in an Olympic hockey competition that quarter-finals will be played; in recent tournaments the top four teams progressed straight to the semi-final stage

All matches will take place at the Olympic Hockey Centre in Deodoro Olympic Park.

Australia have won a medal at every Olympic hockey tournament since 1992. Few would bet against them participating in the gold medal match in Rio on 18 August.