Defending champion Australia finished their Olympic journey with a bronze medal in the men's hockey tournament on Saturday, crushing the third-ranked Netherlands 6-2.

Australia, current No. 1 in the world, was stunned by fourth-ranked Spain with a 3-2 defeat in the semifinal on Thursday.

"We were down after the semifinal game. I think even yesterday we were wondering what could have been. But we had a good meeting and regrouped and were able to put together a good performance today on the pitch," said forward Jamie Dwyer.

Australia launched fierce attacks from the whistle on. No more than ten minutes, the Aussies took a 3-0 lead with two field goals from Eddie Ockenden and the other from Des Abbott. However, immediately the Netherlands narrowed the margin on one penalty corner by specialist Taeke Taekema in the 12th minute. His teammate de Teun Nooijer added another in the 27th.

Then Australia dominated the match and collected three more goals from Eli Matheson, Rob Hammond and Luke Doerner. They denied the Dutch any more goals and sealed their 6-2 win.

The Dutchmen, silver medalists at Athens Games, finally failed to get back to the podium.

Dutch goalie Guus Vogels said he was very disappointed about the 6-2 result. "Even in the whole preliminary tournament, we conceded six goals altogether."

"Australia is one of the best teams in the world. They have the best forward line power and the best midfield power. They upset us in the first eight minutes. We made some personal mistakes and they took the opportunities," he said.

They played a class game and the players all did very well today, said Australian coach Barry Dancer, who would retire after the Games. He also felt disappointed that they did not win the gold.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2008)