After watching on in Rio, the pair flew back to Sydney, caught a train home to Orange before swinging around almost immediately to pick up their daughter from the airport.

Bone will partner fellow Canberra hockey player Andrew Charter in Canberra for the Capital Hockey Challenge, which started on Monday.

While the pair won't play, they will watch on as Australia's best hockey teams from the ACT, NSW, and Victoria converge on the capital in preparation for the Australian Hockey League.

Bone was looking forward to seeing how the ACT would hold up against other leading states ahead of the AHL season.

The Australian under-21s men's team — the Burras — will also play in the week-long tournament in preparation for the Junior World Cup in December.

Bone said things "just didn't click" in Rio after both Australian teams were knocked out in the quarter-finals.

The national men's side — the Kookaburras — recorded their worst result since the 1960 Games, while the Hockeyroos' sixth-place finish was their lowest in history.

"I think it was just we didn't reach our potential," Bone said.

"I still think we played some really good hockey. It's how international hockey is at that level and anything can happen.

"You might just have an off day and you end up where we did. I don't think we played terribly, I think we displayed the kind of hockey that we wanted to display."

Charter said a few days of reflection had him steeled for another shot at Olympic gold in four years' time after under-performing in Rio.

"I'm sure some guys will go home and reflect for the next few days and think about where they're going to let it go," Charter said.

The players aren't due back for a month, with a chance to recharge the batteries after a four-year campaign came to an end earlier than hoped.

A loss to lowly-ranked Spain derailed the Kookaburras' campaign as it set them on course for a quarter-final date with the Netherlands.

"We know [the Netherlands are] a world-class team and the top nations in the world these days are all so close," Charter said.

"That made it a lot harder for us than what we were really hoping. We just didn't convert our opportunities like we usually do, and ultimately it cost us."

In the first game of the week the Burras scored the only goal in the final 20 seconds to beat the NSW Waratahs men's team. Their coach Ben Bishop said they were looking forward to the Junior World Cup in December.

"This is the first time we've had our Junior World Cup squad together, it's a chance to do a whole bunch of things on and off the field in preparation for it," he said.

"It's great for us to be able to play against really good opposition, so older, more seasoned campaign-type teams, which is a good part of the preparation for us."

Following the disappointment of Rio, Bishop said this group would provide an opportunity to look forward to the next Games in Tokyo.

"We've got to take our time and assess how we want to move forward, but after any cycle the junior program is important to look to the future with," he said.