MadAsHell

They've somehow managed to do it the Opals! Well done on getting to that 27 point victory and securing that Quarter Finals birth! Left it late, but at least they got there. Will face USA or hopefully Spain instead in the Quarter Finals which will be tough either way, but at least they managed to get there.

Opals got a move on in the 3rd term. Now 16 points up with a quarter to play. Can they do it!?

Will take a minor miracle for the Opals to get the 25 point win they need tonight. At this stage it's no sure thing they'll even win! 1 point up at the half.

Good effort by the Sharks tonight, finishing their Olympic campaign with a 15-7 victory of Kazakhstan which sees them finish with a 2-3 record and finish 9th. A lot of the time a 2-3 record would be enough to earn a Quarter Final birth, however it wasn't to be for the Sharks despite their impressive win over Serbia. One of their better Olympic campaigns IMO.

Great work by the Equestrian team and Andrew Hoy. Our silver cupboard was a little bare, so nice to even things out a little!

10:05pm Wednesday night.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, if anyone was hoping that our teams events that are now getting to the business end would be nicely spread out across the day so we could have plenty of time to see them all will be most unimpressed. Here's what tomorrow's line up looks like just for the team events. (Hockey Semi Final) Kookaburras v Germany 8:00pm (Waterpolo Quarter Final) Stingrays v Russia 8:50pm (Basketball Quarter Final) Boomers v Argentina 10:00pm (Beach Volleyball Quarter Final) Del Solar/Clancy v Canada 11:00pM - (Repeat of the Commonwealth Games Gold medal match) That's without even looking at what's going on at the track, veledrome or elsewhere. Makes for a bit of a hectic Tuesday night.

Yes it's a much more healthy way of looking at things Macca. I remember all too well the frustration of the lack of Gold at the last two Olympics, so what we've achieved this year has been brilliant in comparison. Even looking at the Hockeyroos in isolation, I didn't know what to expect after the recent review into the team. While I know they're capable of a medal as their ranking suggests, given all the upheaval recently there was the chance they could implode. Shows what happens when you go and win 5 in a row, the expectation suddenly rises! But yes here's hoping the Equestrian team can medal for us tonight and our teams come through with some wins. Sharks will likely miss out on a Quarter Final spot due to goal difference, even with a win tonight, but here's hoping they can go out in style! And of course the Matildas have the chance to guarantee themselves a medal tonight! Finally, according to my calculations, the Opals will need to win tonight by at least 25 points to secure a Quarter Final spot in the Basketball. So they're going to be up against it, however we know that they're capable of doing it.

Yes, they've turned over far too many players over the last few years who could/should still be playing with them that could have helped today. Georgie Parker who has been commentating and was a real live wire type player is still only 32 and could have been playing, though it seems the culture over the years is the reason she's no longer around. And even worse Anna Flannagan is only 29 and is a penalty corner specialist and looked like she would be a gun for the Hockeyroos for years, though she's also been driven out. They most certainly could have used her today. Scoring goals has been an issue with the Hockeyroos for a while now, however after 9 goals in their first two matches, it looked as though they'd fixed that problem. Only scoring 4 goals in the last three games though probably indicated that those demons were still there and it came back to haunt them. I get the comparisons with the Kookaburras from yesterday, however I guess the big difference was being able to get the job done when they should. The Kookaburras came up against really strong opposition (Netherlands) who are always around the medal rounds, however were playing below their best in the group matches. They managed to lift for their match against us, but we thankfully were able to fight out a win. The Hockeyroos on the other hand were playing opposition who were probably lucky to be there, have never won an Olympic medal and we have a dominate record against. And while India certainly weren't bad today, I didn't feel they actually played that well. Today felt more of a case of the Hockeyroos playing nervous all match. Hopefully the steps are already in place to rebuild the Hockeroos given the recent reviews into the culture and environment. They've just missed a massive opportunity here. Thankfully they've got the Commonwealth Games next year to look forward to, however even a gold there would only go so far seeing as they won't have to come up against any of Germany, Netherlands or Argentina there.

Well, what a horribly disapointing end to the Hockeyroos campaign. After going through the group phase winning 5 out of 5 and getting to draw the 4th place team in the other group who we had a 31-4 record over, we have been knocked out with a 1-0 loss in a shockingly nervous match. This makes 4 Olympics in a row that the Hockeyroos have missed out on the medal rounds....

What what a day for Australia today. Not only the 4 gold medals, the Kookaburras great Quarter Final win in the Hockey or our women's water polo team securing a Quarter Final spot. But we had Peter Bohl looking like a real medal chance in the men's 800m on the track and now Del Solar & Clancy have won their way through to the Quarter Finals in the Beach Volleyball with a 22-20, 21-13 straight sets win over China. First set was close, but they got back to their best in the 2nd set and looked very good. Here's hoping for a few more wins from this pair!

Well it was far from a pretty match, but our women's water polo team have won their way through to the Quarter Finals with a 14-1 win over South Africa. Score card isn't as exciting as it sounds as before this match South Africa had scored only 6 goals and conceded 83 in their three prior matches. Australia will now face Russia in their Quarter Final with the winner going into the Semi's to face the winner of USA v Canada.

It's always a shame when we miss out on seeing the best compete, especially when it's for reasons such as hers. It's a real shame she hasn't been able to get the support she needed before the games. Hopefully she gets the care she needs.

Spot on Macca, first time in Olympic history that Australia has won 4 gold medals in a single day. To add to that, the 14 gold medals now makes this officially our 4th most successful games (at a minimum). Only 1 gold to go to move into our top three and 4 more to make it our most successful ever.

Kookaburras progress to the Semi Finals in the Hockey with a thrilling 2-2 (3-0) penalty shoot out victory over Netherlands! Was a lot tougher than it should have been, but they've got their redemption for their Quarter final exit to the same team in Rio. Now on to bigger and better things in the Semi Final against Germany. What a day for the Aussies!

More gold to Australia in the BMX Freestyle! Well done Logan McDonald! With sailing gold to come later today, that will be 4 gold in one day!

Gold, gold, gold to Australia! What a swim, well done Cate Campbell. What a final leg and well done Chelsea Hodges on holding your own in the breastroke leg.

Gold to Australia with an Olympic record to Emma McKeon in the 50m Freestyle. We have now equaled our best gold haul in the pool with Melbourne 1956!

And just saw, another bronze for Australia! Congratulations to Ash Barty and John Peers in the tennis Mixed Doubles, claiming it in a walk over.

Great gutsy win by the Boomers over Germany tonight 89-76. Germany were on and it took us some time to adjust to the loss of Baynes, but a great win. We got killed on the glass without him, which is of some concern, but this Boomers team has guts! Next match will be the Quarter Finals. We'll have to wait about 24 hours to find out who our opponent will be. I suspect it will most likely be Slovenia or Argentina, but we'll wait and see.

Esther Qin has won her way through to the women's 3m Springboard final in the diving tomorrow at 4pm.

Kaylee McKeown sorry, for some reason I was naming her sister who competed at the last Olympics... In other news our mens waterpolo team were flogged again 16-5, this time by Spain. Have a match to come against Kazakhstan which we should win, but given the goals against to for differential that we have, it looks unlikely we'll progress to the Quarter Finals.

Hockeyroos defeat Argentina 2-0 to go through their group match undefeated. A fantastic win! Will now meet either India or Ireland in the Quarter Finals who we should be far to strong for.

After Taylor McKeown's efforts today, we are only 1 gold medal away from equalling our greatest ever performance in the pool and 2 away from our best ever. Tomorrow is the final day in the pool for the games and we've got three chances to make the marks. Our best chance is probably in the women's 50m Freestyle witn Emma McKeon fastest qualifier and Cate Campbell there to. Then another good chance comes in thd Womens 4x100m Medley relay with the same two listed above along with Taylor McKeown and Chelsea Hodges to do a job in the breastroke. Our final chance is the mens 4x100m Medley relay with Mitch Larkin, Izac Stublety-Cook, Matthew Temple and Kyle Chalmers. Gold medal probably highly unlikely there, but you never do know?

Bronze for Australia in the Mixed medley relay. I do question the decision to go with Temple in the Butterfly and McKeon in the freestyle as opposed to McKeon in Butterfly and Chalmers in freestyle, but they've done extremely well.