Hockey Australia released the 27-member squad as the team that would build towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The world number one Kookaburras will compete in the inaugural FIH Pro League from January to June, followed by the Oceania Cup which is the qualifying event for the Olympics.

Sharp said the competition was more of a home and away series.

“We play a few games in Australia for the first half of the year and then we head overseas," he said.

The team will compete at home in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and Perth before heading over to England, Holland, Belgium, Argentina and New Zealand for the away games.

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Sharp said the there would be a different type of Daily Training Environment (DTE) with the games being away from home.

“It will be a bit difficult to adapt to different conditions all the time, but overall we will get used to it,” he said.

He also said the team were looking forward to next year and hoped to get more people interested in hockey.

“Hopefully we get some bigger crowds at our games as well,” he said.

Sharp said on a personal level having the chance to compete at the Olympics was the ultimate goal for him.

“If you want something bad enough you will do whatever it takes to get there.

“It’s amazing for me, but the team as well, it’s the pinnacle of our sport,” he said.

He also said in the past, the Kookaburras had definitely under-performed at the Olympic games in previous years.

“This is massive for us and personally winning an Olympic gold medal would be the best feeling in the world.

“Having partly experienced that feeling in winning a Commonwealth Games [gold medal] and being around the athletes’ village was awesome and I can only imagine how much better an Olympic games would be,” Sharp said.

The Pro League commences for the Kookaburras against the Netherlands on Saturday, February 2 in Melbourne.

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