AA to HNL
Qantas to Sydney

The return does not have to be via HNL


From SFO, if you are happy with the overnight ( or stopover ) in HNL, it s the shortest route to Sydney. The distance via LAX is 7825 miles vs 7465 via HNL plus is all by day with a break after 5 hours rather than a 1 hour flight followed by a v long one

Just seen the flaw to this comparison; AA doesn't seem to fly non stop from SFO-HNL anymore so would still need to go via LAX. Even so, HNL still avoids a night flight

Another one to look for is via Auckland; I have seen the Auckland flight tend to have more availability and the connection in AKL is pretty easy