Ephraums Scores Five as HC Melbourne Smash Canberra, and Two Teams Are Still Perfect After Hockey One Round 4
Three goals inside five minutes. That was all it took for Friday night in Canberra to stop being a top-of-the-table clash and start being a rout.
Nathan Ephraums did the damage. HC Melbourne arrived in Canberra with both men’s sides unbeaten, and Ephraums scored three times before most people had found their seats. By the 43rd minute it was 8-0. He finished with five, Cooper Burns added three and Duncan Jackson scored twice in a 10-2 win that puts the reigning men’s premiers three points clear at the top. Jake Staines and Aiden Dooley got consolations for the Chill, but this one was over early. Ephraums now leads the men’s scoring race with 10 goals, and nobody else is close to that kind of form right now.
The women’s game in Canberra was a proper contest by comparison, and HC Melbourne still took it. Zali Ward’s field goal and a second-half Sophie Murphy corner sealed a 2-0 win, the double, and the Chill women’s first home loss of the season. That’s the thing about this HC Melbourne side. They don’t just win the glamour game. They win the other one too.
Saturday in Hobart gave us the tightest game of the round. The women’s lead changed hands twice before it finished 3-3. Stephanie Kershaw’s corner put Brisbane ahead, Holly Pearson turned it around for Tassie, Rosie Malone answered the same way for the Blaze, and Yvette Biekart’s 57th-minute penalty stroke levelled it. Then the shootout belonged to one player. Blaze keeper Jordan Bliss kept the Tigers scoreless from all four attempts, Sara Strauss and Malone scored, and Brisbane took it 2-0. Four saves in a shootout. That’s a match-winning performance on its own.
The men’s game in Hobart had its own story. Joel Rintala marked his first appearance of the season with a 12th-minute goal for the Blaze, and they held that lead until the final quarter. Then it fell apart in four minutes. Oliver Stebbings and Ehren Hazell each scored a field goal and its conversion, and the Tigers won 4-1 to move into second on the ladder. That’s a brutal way to lose a game you led for three quarters.
Adelaide was a study in contrasts. The Pride women didn’t score until the 30th minute, then scored seven in the last 31. Makayla Jones finished with three, Amalia Patterson converted two corners, and Madii Smith and Jenna-Rae McIntyre joined in for a 7-0 win. The men’s game was the opposite kind of win. One goal, Blake Govers from a 35th-minute corner, and that was enough. It also took his Hockey One career tally to 46 goals, and he’s now scored in all four games this season. Adelaide will take heart from their best defensive performance of the season. They still lost.
Perth finished the round on Sunday, and the Thundersticks women just keep rolling. Liné Malan scored either side of half-time, Sarah Byrnes added a field goal and its conversion on the final whistle, and it finished 4-0 over the Melbourne Cobras. Four wins from four, three goals conceded all season. That is a serious defensive record, and it’s why they’re the team everyone is chasing in the women’s competition.
The men’s game in Perth was far livelier. Jake Whetton’s field goal and conversion put the Cobras 2-1 up, Cambell Geddes converted two corners for Perth, Rohit Mohil’s corner levelled it at 3-3, Harry Golding restored the lead, and Daykin Stanger sealed a 6-3 win with a field goal and its conversion in the 50th minute. Six different kinds of momentum swing in one game, and Perth had the last one.
So after four rounds, two sides are still perfect: the HC Melbourne men and the Thundersticks women, both 4-0. Round 5 opens on Friday 6 November at Parkville, where the HC Melbourne men host the second-placed Tigers. That’s a grand final rematch, and after what Ephraums just did in Canberra, Tassie know exactly what they’re walking into.
