Hockey One Women After Round 4: Perth Still Perfect, Melbourne Second, and the Race for Fourth Is Wide Open
Perth are still perfect, and everyone else is chasing them. That’s the story of the women’s Hockey One season after Round 4.
The Thundersticks made it four wins from four with Sunday’s 4-0 home win over the Melbourne Cobras, and the numbers are ominous for the rest: 13 goals scored, just three conceded. Courtney Schonell leads the competition with five goals. Perth aren’t just winning, they’re barely being threatened.
HC Melbourne are second on nine points after Friday’s 2-0 win in Canberra, and they’ve now won three straight since losing to Perth. That’s the form team behind the leaders, and they host the Tassie Tigers on Friday night in Round 5. Win that, and the gap to Perth stays at three points with the season still young.
Four teams, two points, two spots
Then comes the scramble. NSW Pride, Canberra Chill and the Melbourne Cobras are all on six points, and Brisbane Blaze are right behind them on five after their shootout win over the Tigers in Hobart. That’s four teams within two points of each other, all fighting for the last two spots in the top four.
The Pride’s goal difference stands out, plus 8, after Saturday’s 7-0 thrashing of Adelaide Fire. They score plenty. The problem is consistency: two wins, two losses. Canberra, on six points too, need to bounce back from that 2-0 home loss to Melbourne, and they get a huge game for it, away at the Pride on Saturday.
Down at the bottom, the Tigers are on four points after that shootout loss in Hobart, where they missed all four shootout attempts, and Adelaide Fire are still without a point, having conceded 22 goals in four games. The Cobras host the Fire in Bendigo on Sunday, and that one feels like a must-win for both sides, for very different reasons.
For our money, Perth are clear favourites right now, but the real drama is that fight for fourth. Four teams, separated by almost nothing, and Round 5 puts two of them straight up against each other in Sydney.
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