As the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos enter the business end of the Tokyo Olympic Hockey Tournament, here is everything you need to know about the Knockout Stage.Both the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos have finished top of their pools. With Australia’s flagship national hockey teams in prime position for a gold medal assault, here is the process of how they get there.

Preliminary Rounds

In the Men’s and Women’s Hockey competitions, 12 teams are split into two pools of six. Each team plays five group stage matches against the other teams in their pool (the teams in each Pool were determined using the FIH World Rankings as of 4 November 2019).

Men’s competition
Pool A: Australia, Argentina, India, Spain, New Zealand, Japan
Pool B: Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Canada, South Africa

Women’s competition
Pool A: Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, India, South Africa
Pool B: Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Spain, China, Japan

Who qualifies for the Knockout Stage

The top four teams in each Pool at the end of the Preliminary Rounds progress to the Quarter Finals.

How the Knockout Stage works

In the Quarter Finals, the top four teams of one pool will each play a team from the other pool. 

The top team in Pool A will take on the fourth placed team from Pool B. Second in Pool A will take on third from Pool B and vice-versa.

As top of Pool A, the Kookaburras will take on the Netherlands (finished fourth in Pool B).

As top of Pool B, the Hockeyroos will take on India (finished fourth in Pool A).

The four losing teams in the Quarter Finals will be eliminated, while the four winners move through to the Semi Finals. 

If the Kookaburras defeat the Netherlands, they will take on the winner of the Quarter Final between Germany (2^nd in Pool B) and Argentina (3^rd in Pool A).

If the Hockeyroos progress to the Semi Finals, they will take on the winner of the Quarter Final between 2^nd in Pool A and 3^rd in Pool B.

The losers of the Semi-Finals will play off in the Bronze Medal match. 

The winners of the Semi-Finals will play off in the Gold Medal match.