Black Sticks men rally for last shot at Rio

Ryan Archibald of the Black Sticks. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The indicators are grim but New Zealand are confident they can secure an Olympic spot with their last chance in Stratford tomorrow.

The world No7 Black Sticks must beat Australia, the world's top ranked team, to win the Oceania Cup, and nail a spot in the field for Rio next year.

True, they have beaten Australia this year, in a shootout to win the Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia in April, but set aside the overall win-loss record against Australia and just focus on the post-London Olympic period from 2012.

That's the only win in seven internationals between the transtasman rivals.

They have a final preparatory game against Fiji today before the final. Australia won a tight round robin game 3-1 on Thursday, three of the four goals coming in the last nine minutes.

"We have a lot to gain from the game and that's how we will approach it," coach Colin Batch said of today's game, but he might just as well have been talking about the final.

New Zealand last missed an Olympics in Sydney in 2000.

Classy midfielder Ryan Archibald is the only survivor from that campaign and on his final Olympic trail this weekend.

A New Zealand loss tomorrow "would be a real setback for men's hockey," he said.

"A lot of that comes down to funding that will be missed.

"If you don't have funding you can't play games or do tours and develop talent."

That said, he rates the current squad as having the most depth of any squad he's been involved in since his debut in 1997.

The women's Black Sticks play Australia, a clash between the fourth and second-ranked teams, both today and again in the final tomorrow.

Those teams have qualified for Rio so essentially the weekend amounts to a couple of high calibre clashes, with important ranking points to be secured, which will go into the planning mixer for Rio.

New Zealand's men can only wish they had that luxury tomorrow.

Transtasman tally

• New Zealand v Australia since 1922
• Played 123, Won 18, Drawn 20, Lost 85