My Top 5 Australian Olympic Hockey Moments

Today being National Olympic Day, and this week being National Hockey Week in Australia, I thought I would share my top five Australian Olympic hockey moments. Here they are in order starting with number 5 and moving through to my top moment at number 1-

5- Australia v New Zealand (1976 Montreal Olympics Gold Medal Final) (Mens)

This may seem a little strange as that Australia lost to New Zealand on this day and took home silver, but it makes it to the top 5 because this was one of the best Australia mens teams every assembled for an Olympics, but perhaps was an Olympics before there time and has the boycott not happened in 1980 at Moscow they most likely would have one gold, here is a you tube highlight of this game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HicqMYhLDlk

4- Australia v Korea (1988 Seoul Olympic Gold Medal Final) (Women's)

This is the first gold medal the Australian Hockeyroo's as they were to become later won, this was won of the strongest Australia Women's teams to go away with many Australian hockey greats in it, from a young Rochele Hawkes to great like Sharon Buchannon. They would beat Korea in the final, here is some footage from that game-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubqCruIVY1s

3- Australia v Korea (1996 Atlanta Olympic Gold Medal Final) (Women's)

This was the first gold medal one by the greatest Australian Hockey team of all time, this team included Rochelle Hawkes, Alyson Annan among many others, and they dominated this Olympics go all the way through to win the Gold against Korea in the final. Once here is some footage from that game-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubqCruIVY1s

2- Australia v Argentina (2000 Sydney Olympics Gold Medal Final) (Women's)

This was the final piece in the symphony of the greatest Australian Hockey team of all time, this was the completion of a golden era for the Australian Hockeyroo's when they completed double Olympic Gold in Sydney in 2000. This team again included many great among them Rochelle Hawkes who equaled Dawn Fraser in winning three Olympic Golds in one event for Australia. Once again here is a bit of footage from that moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubqCruIVY1s

1- Australia v Holland (2004 Athens Olympic Gold Medal Final) (Men's)

This is my greatest moment of all time, only just over the 2000 Hockeyroo's, why because in one simple way it was the moment the Australia Kookaburras finally broke the curse and made the top of the medal podium at the Olympics. This was a great team with many players who would form the backbone of the teams going forward. There was Jamie Dwyer, Bevan George, Brett Livermoore, Luke Doehner among many others. The Australian's one this game in extra time which makes it even more exciting, here is some footage from the classic final-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THj-ztwR-l4

So this is my top 5 moments what do you think, would you change the order, would you add another moment from Australia Olympic hockey history, look forward to hearing from you.