Maybe Kookaburras coach Barry Dancer missed his calling.

The Australian men's hockey mentor could make millions on the world poker tour, judging by his stony-faced assessment of his defending Olympic champions at Beijing.

Sixteen goals and two convincing victories should be enough to get anyone excited.

Instead Dancer is keeping his cards close to his chest, offering only the understated comment that the Kookaburras' dream start to their title defence is "pleasing".

The Kookaburras will line up on Friday against former Olympic champions Pakistan on top of Pool B following a record-equalling 10-0 win over world No.13 South Africa.

However, the perennial Games disappointments have learned to become wary of hype.

Forty-eight years of frustration can do that.

After finally breaking through for gold at Athens, the Australian men are content to keep their heads down and work on defending the title it took so long to grasp.

Their relentless quest for perfection ensured Dancer and his captain Bevan George looked far from satisfied with a 10-0 thumping.

"It was an improved performance on our first match (6-1 win over Canada) - it was more consistent," Dancer said.

"Our ball movement was better and our collective defence was better, so pleasing."

George was an even harder marker when asked about their title defence to date.

"Scorelines like that tend to mask things that you don't do well," he said.

But there's no doubting the Kookaburras are in ominous form.

They reclaimed the world No.1 ranking from Germany with a record-equalling ninth Champions Trophy title in the lead-up to Beijing.

And they have blown off the Olympic cobwebs with two thumpings.

Australia would be quietly confident of accounting for world No.6 Pakistan, which last tasted Olympic glory in 1984.

Then there's the big test - two-time champions Holland on Sunday.

The Dutch are still smarting from being downed by Australia in extra-time in the Athens final.

The Kookaburras round off their pool matches against No.8 Great Britain on Tuesday.

The top two teams in each pool advance to the semi-finals on August 21.

Not that the Kookaburras are looking too far ahead.

"Munich (1972 Games) was our last big win like that (10-0) so that is good news," Athens gold medallist Grant Schubert said.

"Maybe back in under-11s or under-15s we got up to 20-0 at times, but 10-0 at an international match is relatively unknown.

"But we are not getting ahead of ourselves. We have our tougher matches to come."