Germany v Australia - Men's FIH Field Hockey Pro League
#1 Australia
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Australia - winners of the inaugural Pro League
As a coach, Colin Batch may not have had the level of success that his former teammate Ric Charlesworth did with the kookaburras - but the era of one team dominating world hockey seems to be coming to an end.
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Even so, few nations can hope to match what the Australians have achieved in the modern era and the consistency of the Aussies in the inaugural Pro League was there for all to see.
With a mindboggling 12 wins in 16 matches, the three-time World Champions remained head and shoulders above the rest and ended up as deserving winners.
The Aussies also won back the top spot in the FIH rankings which they had lost to Belgium earlier thus reaffirming the fact that they were indeed the best.
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A narrow struggling shootout win against India in the finals of the 2018 Champions Trophy may have exposed a few chinks in the armour and the Aussies looked less-than-convincing in the World Cup as well, but the Pro League performance earlier this year has sounded a warning a bell that the kookaburras are back where they belong.
A second successive Pro League win ahead of the Tokyo Olympics seems to be a distinct possibility for the indomitable Australians with Pro League award winners Aran Zalewski, Blake Govers, and Tyler Lovell leading from the front.
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About the author
Subhashish Majumdar
Subhashish has been an Indian sports journalist at Sportskeeda since 2017. He primarily covers hockey along with other Indian Sports, and endeavors to bridge the coverage gap between the multitude of Indian sports and cricket via his articles. Subhashish’s interest in Indian sports peaked after watching a few hockey and football matches live during his childhood days, and has also played Hockey, Football, Table Tennis, Badminton at school and college level.
As a journalist, he covered every single Indian hockey match at the 2018 & 2022 Commonwealth Games, 2018 & 2023 Asian Games, 2018 Women's World Cup, 2018 & 2023 Men’s World Cup and the 2021 Olympics. An interview specialist, he has conducted over 100 interviews with the Indian Men's and Women's Hockey team, and has also been part of the UK-based DesiSportsCast Podcast.
Subhashish’s favorite Indian athlete is Vandana Katariya for her relentlessness and never-say-die attitude. For him, India men's hockey team's 7-1 win over Pakistan in 2017 Hockey World League semis on the same day as India men's cricket team's loss to the same opponent in the Champions Trophy final is an iconic moment in Indian Sports history.
When not writing, he likes to spend his free time blogging, singing, jogging, and trekking.