Australia will go all out to defend the title

Melbourne, Mar 11 (UNI) Olympic champions and Manchester Commonwealth Games winners Australia today served notice to their rivals with a resounding 5-2 win over Malaysia in a friendly hockey match here.

The Australian men's team have not lost a match at the Commonwealth Games since the discipline was introduced in 1998 and they seemed determined to maintain that record here.

Meanwhile, the Australian women's team scored a thumping 5-1 win over England and national coach Frank Murray said he was thrilled the way his girls played. They are scheduled to play their first match against defending champions India on March 16.

The men's team have eight players from the squad that won the gold in Manchester Games, while the aggrssive women's team features a blend of youth and experience.

Brent Livermore, Nikki Hudson and Rachel Imison will become the the first Australian players to represent the country in all Commonwealth Games hockey competitions, after being selected for their third Games, having previously represented in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and in Manchester four years ago.

Livermore will be joined by seven of his gold medal-winning Manchester team mates -- Dean Butler, Liam De Young, Bevan George, Aaron Hopkins, Stephen Lambert, Michael McCann and Matthew Wells.

Among the women, Angie Skirving, Mel Twitt and Karen Smith will also play at the Games for the second time.

The Kookaburras have won both the Commonwealth Games men's hockey competitions held to date, defeating Malaysia in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur and then maintaining an unbeaten record in the preliminary matches before defeating New Zealand in the Manchester Games final.

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