HOCKEY SKIPPER AIMS FOR SIXTH AND OUT

TRIPLE Commonwealth Games hockey gold medallist and long-serving Kookaburras captain Mark Knowles will retire from international hockey after GC2018.

The 33-year-old Rockhampton-raised defender hopes he can bookend his career with a gold medal, which would be the Kookaburras' sixth straight at the Commonwealth Games.

Knowles debuted for Australia in 2004 and is one of only six Kookaburras to reach 300 caps.

His decorated career has also included four Olympic Games including gold in 2004 and being awarded World Player of the Year in 2014.

“If my parents or any of my friends had said to me 20 years ago in Rockhampton that you’d play over 300 games for your country, four Olympics, Commonwealth Games, World Cups, travel the world, play in Europe, play in India, I would’ve taken it at the drop of a hat,” he said.