WAGGA product Dylan Martin will never fully be at peace with the Kookaburras' loss in the Olympic hockey final.
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After a whirlwind six months he knows being an Olympic silver medallist is a big achievement, but it says plenty about the team's winning mentality that they want more.
The result was the best for Australia in team sports at Tokyo, but in three years' time Martin wants to go one better than a superb first international tournament in the green and gold.
Australia lost a tense penalty shootout against Belgium in last week's final, but with 11 debutants in the side the world's number one team will certainly be a contender again in Paris 2024.
"It (loss in final) is something you're not really going to be happy with ever, losing how we did in such a big moment," Martin said as he quarantines at a Melbourne hotel.
"We nearly won the biggest tournament in hockey, but you've still got to take the good things out of it. Winning a silver medal is big and we were the most successful Australian sports team at the Olympics.
"It's been a good six months for me and my first tournament with the Kookaburras was the Olympics, which is huge. To play really well and get a silver is incredible really.
"Even if we won that gold medal we'd still be chasing just as hard. We're in one of the most successful teams in the world, everyone in there is hungry and wants to get better.
"We go to tournaments to win, the Kookaburras will be a team to watch the next few years."
After finding an equaliser early in the last quarter, Australia were right on top in the back end of the match but couldn't find the killer blow to avoid a penalty shootout.
Martin feels the Kookaburras would have got the job done if extra time was played at the Olympics.
The last quarter we were dominating, another five minutes and they were in big trouble," Martin said.
"That's one of the hard things as well, we probably had some opportunities in the last quarter we didn't execute that well. But that's just how it is, that's just sport.
"I'd like to see it (extra time) happen, especially for the gold medal match, but even for the quarters and semis.
"The shootouts in my opinion are a spectacle, people love to watch them. If we had a break the momentum could have swung back their way, but we were dominating that last half. It's tough."
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Martin was pleased with his individual performances, playing as a defender and holding his own.
"We do have a lot of problem solvers in our team which is great, but if we all focus on doing our own little thing, we generally have a pretty good outcome," he said.
"It's been a massive focus over the last six months for our defensive group, to not try and fix someone else's problems. You focus on your job and you grow your game from there.
"We do have a very young group at the moment and Paris is only three years away."
Martin plans to return home to Wagga to catch up with family once he completes quarantine, and said he was blown away by the support from home.
The hockey final was the sixth most watched Australian 'moment' of the Games, with around three million tuning in during prime time.
"It's a pretty exciting time for the sport. The amount of support I got was incredible, the way Australia got around us was incredible," Martin said.
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