Hockey: It's mettle on metal for Aussie women

Hockeyroos women's coach Adam Commens.

The Hockeyroos have the mettle but their preoccupation is with the colour of the metal they haven't been winning, according to the women's coach, Adam Commens.

"It is one of our objectives to turn silver to gold," says Commens, revealing Australia have been paying attention to details in the past few months so the Hawke's Bay Cup tournament starting from tomorrow will become a yardstick to gauge the efficiency of their circle attack/defence and set pieces.

The World No2 side are a few points above defending cup champions Argentina, who on Wednesday thrashed the Black Sticks 7-1 in Gisborne.

With nine changes to their team last year in the inaugural outing, he feels just making the final against Argentina here was satisfying despite the 3-0 loss that saw Las Leonas (the Lionesses) farewell legend Luciana Aymar in style.

"We did create enough opportunities to defeat Argentina in the final, so it was probably a mixture of inexperience and to finalise those details at the end," says Commens, of Waggawagga, in New South Wales.

The 38-year-old has been at the helm of the women's team for four years as coach. He is a former Kookuburra (1997-2004), winning bronze at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and silver at 2002 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, as well as gold at 1998 Commonwealth Games in the same city.

He also coached the Belgium men's team from 2007-11 and took them to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Since the 2012 London Olympics, Australia have had a nucleus of players who have gained some confidence with good results.

"We've made the final of every major tourney we've played in since 2012, eight of them with consistency, so now it's just about getting the results in those finals."

In hockey, he believes scoring penalty corners and then putting up the shutters against them means success becomes elementary.

Australia have an attacking brand but, ironically, that stems from "an excellent defensive foundation", although a solid one-on-one presence throughout the turf is vital.