The 31-year-old jetted off to India for his third World Cup this week with Josh Beltz also on the plane and Jack Welch waiting in the wings.

But Ockenden said it was impossible not to feel for World League and Commonwealth Games-winning teammate Jeremy Edwards who was cut from the national squad last week.

“It was a very difficult decision for Jeremy,” Ockenden told The Examiner. “He played a lot this year and everyone is feeling for him because he's a good player. But elite sport is tough and full of difficult decisions.”

Edwards, 26, was the major omission when the 2019 squad was announced by Hockey Australia.

However, Welch did make the list, alongside Ockenden and Beltz, who is a travelling reserve for the World Cup squad in Bhubaneswar.

Ockenden, who is co-captain with West Australian Aran Zalewski, welcomed the arrivals of two more Hobartians.

“Josh has done really well to get into this position because it's a tough selection process,” he said.

“He's been injured a fair bit this year but was really positive about making the 20 and it's been great to see him that keen. He can come into the tournament at any stage if someone is injured so there is a high likelihood that he will play.

“Jack is a skilful young striker with a lot of potential who has improved a lot.

“He was player of the under-21 tournament that Tassie won and has moved to Perth to play his club hockey which really helped him.”

Ockenden is not getting carried away with the Kookaburras’ World Cup favouritism.

The world’s No.1-ranked team is chasing a third straight title having also won the Champions Trophy, Commonwealth Games, Oceania Cup and World League Final over the past 18 months.

Australia has made the last four in every World Cup since 1978, losing the 2002 and ’06 finals to Germany before reversing that result in 2010 and thrashing The Netherlands 6-1 in The Hague four years ago.

But the experienced co-captain said the 2016 Olympic Games demonstrated how open the elite men’s game has become.

“International hockey is so competitive because there are so many good teams,” Ockenden said.

“We've been saying this for 10 years now that anyone can win and Argentina won the Olympics ranked eighth.

“Of the top eight anyone can win – the Netherlands, Germany, Spain ... I want to be careful not to miss anyone out ... Belgium, India, Argentina – they are all really competitive. So it's very exciting for hockey but makes it hard and there’s a good mix of styles and cultures.”

Ockenden has known nothing but success at his two previous World Cups and will lead a side driven to complete a hat-trick in Bhubaneswar.

“Along with Olympics, World Cups are the biggest tournaments we play so to go to three is a really big deal and really exciting.

“With the Australian team we feel we want to go to every tournament and win so expectations from the group are always to win and that's what we're hoping to do.

“We have a bit of a different team this year. We go in No.1 ranked again but have a younger developing team. It's a different part of our cycle with the Olympics always the main goal so we're still building towards Tokyo.”

Ockenden, who has been in the national side since 2006 and graced three Olympics, has fond memories of playing in the hockey-mad nation, including a group-stage match against the hosts in the 2010 World Cup.

“That was amazing. We won that game but had lost our opener against England so could not afford to drop another game.

“India is a great place to play hockey. Tournaments are played before great crowds, particularly for Indian games, there's so much noise and the stadium at Bhubaneswar is huge now. 

“It's a big sport there and they all say it's their national game even though cricket is more popular. It's ingrained in Indian culture and they do quite well in hockey.”

The Kookaburras’ first game is against Ireland (ranked 10th) on Friday with England (seventh) and China (17th) also in Pool B.

A new tournament format allows sides finishing second and third another chance to qualify for the quarter-finals.

“Certainly England is the toughest game on world rankings but Irish hockey has gone through quite a resurgence and they qualified for the Olympics in Rio for the first time in a long time,” Ockenden said.

“They have a lot of quality in the team. China we don't know too much about but as it is our final group game we will have a couple of chances to watch how they play.

“We've had a pretty good build-up. It's been a long year but we've managed it really well and had a good preparation for this. Everyone is really excited.

“The Commonweath Games are great for us because they are on prime time TV and we've been really successful in them so its very important to us to win them but we've been looking forward to the World Cup all year. It's a much bigger tournament with much tougher teams, especially all the Europeans.”