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Sunday, 4 August, 2002, 15:59 GMT 16:59 UK
Dwyer fires Australia to gold
Australia 5-2 New Zealand
A Jamie Dwyer hat-trick helped Australia retain their Commonwealth title with an awesome display against New Zealand.
The Kookaburras stormed into a four-goal lead by the break and refused to let the Kiwis back into the match in the second half.
After the match, Dwyer saluted his team-mates and issued an ominous warning that his side were looking to improve.
"It is very rare you get the chance to score three goals in a final event so I am really happy for my own performance but it was the guys around me that mademy performance good," he said.
"Everyone else was equally as good as me.
"We want to get in the front now and make other teams chase us so we'll have to keep up our fitness and basic game.
"The goal now is to try to win the Champions Trophy (involving the world's top six nations)."
Australia dominated from the start and it took until the 20th minute for the New Zealanders to get into their circle.
They could have gone into the lead against the run of play when Umesh Parag wasted a good chance by flicking weakly at Mark Hickman.
But the Kookaburras went straight down the other end and scored through Troy Elder.
That set the tone for the rest of the match.
Jamie Dwyer slid in his fifth goal of the competition moments later from a Michael McCann cross to make it 2-0.
Craig Victory then converted from a penalty corner just before the half hour, and Dwyer hit his second before the break to put the result seemingly beyond doubt.
A Phillip Burrows' individual effort in the 44th minute suggested a possible fightback by New Zealand.
But when Ryan Archibald was shown a yellow card four minutes later the champions regained control, and Dwyer immediately completed his hat-trick from close range.
Some late pressure produced two penalty corners for New Zealand before Umesh Parag was fouled when clean through three minutes from time.
Hayden Shaw converted the penalty stroke for his 13th goal of the tournament, making him the top scorer, but it was never going to derail Australia.
04 Aug 02 | Hockey
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