The Kookaburras beat Great Britain 1-0 at the Champions Trophy men's hockey tournament in Kuala Lumpur to climb to second on the table behind unbeaten Germany after four matches.

Australia's cause was helped by Korea who upset Olympic champions the Netherlands 6-2.

The Dutch, unbeaten in their last three matches, finally wilted in the late afternoon heat, allowing the Koreans to score four times in the last nine minutes.

Earlier, strikers Jamie Dwyer, Matthew Naylor and Travis Brooks were heavily involved for the Kookaburras, setting up several scoring attempts which resulted in four shots on goal and two penalty corners in the first half.

But it was young gun Eddie Ockenden who would put the Australian side on the scoreboard thanks to a play set up by Aaron Smith on 25 minutes.

Great Britain were initially unable to penetrate the strong Kookaburra defence lead by Bevan George and Mark Knowles but lifted

The Brits mounted several strong attacks but were ultimately again denied by the Kookaburra defence.

The Kookaburras also peppered the goals as the match went on and even squeezed a shot home in the 48th minute, only for the referee to disallow it, ruling the ball was first hit by a foot.

Australia now have three wins from their four matches and will play the as yet winless Spain in another pool match on Wednesday.

Germany maintained its 100 per cent record with a 4-1 win over Spain on Monday while the Malaysian hosts scored their first point of the tournament through a 2-2 draw with Pakistan.

The Germans have 12 points and Australia nine with the Netherlands and Korea tied on seven.

AAP