By Carl Markham, PA Sport

Australia retained their Commonwealth crown in a 5-2 rout against their Oceania rivals thanks to comprehensive team display capped off by a fine Jamie Dwyer hat-trick.

Dwyer proved he had the golden touch but it was the Aussies' overall performance which shone through the hazy afternoon skies at Belle Vue.

The traffic went almost exclusively one way and it took New Zealand until midway through the first half to enter Australia's circle.

Australia created the first chance after just seven minutes when Bevan George's free hit picked out Mick McCann in front of goal but he swept wide when he had much more time to pick his spot.

New Zealand goalkeeper Paul Woolford was then called upon to make a good stick save from Troy Elder's low penalty corner drag flick five minutes later.

The Kiwis did not get into the Australian circle until the 19th minute but Umesh Parag wasted a good chance by flicking weakly at Mark Hickman.

They were made to pay for that missed opportunity as the Kookaburras went straight down the other end and Elder's driven shot was deflected past Woolford at the near post by Dion Gosling.

The Kiwis replied by winning a penalty corner in the 23rd minute but the competition's leading scorer Hayden Shaw could not add to his 12 goals and flicked over.

Once again New Zealand were punished as Elder picked out McCann on the left of the D and he crossed for Dwyer to slide in for his fifth goal of the competition.

Dwyer then turned provider with a penalty corner push which Craig Victory turned in with seven minutes to go.

And then a raking crossfield pass by Brent Livermore, regarded as one of the best midfielders in the world, picked out Dwyer to fire home his second.

Phillip Burrows weaved his way past George and Paul Gaudoin before slotting past Hickman to reduce the deficit nine minutes after half-time.

New Zealand lost Ryan Archibald to the sin-bin and a minute later McCann collected Gaudoin's pass down the right and crossed inside for Dwyer who saw his first shot blocked but fired home the loose ball for his hat-trick.

The Kookaburras then lost McCann to a yellow card for a crude body check in midfield but even without Archibald the Kiwis could not make their numerical advantage count.

With three minutes to go Aaron Hopkins took the stick of Bevan Hari and Shaw finally registered a consolation from the penalty spot.

Hat-trick hero Dwyer was quick to credit his team-mates for their gold medal-winning performance.

"It was great out there. I'm pretty stoked myself," he said.

"It is very rare you get the chance to score three goals in a final event so I am really happy for my own performance but it was the guys around me that made my performance good.

"Everyone else was equally as good as me.

"We want to get in the front now and make other teams chase us so we'll have to keep up our fitness and basic game.

"The goal now is to try to win the Champions Trophy (involving the world's top six nations).

"We are trying a younger team, a few of the inexperienced guys are coming into that and hopefully they will be able to make the step up.

"We want to keep winning. We have won 14 in a row now."