Hockey One Round 2: Govers Goes for the Record, and Melbourne Gets a Grand Final Rematch
One goal. That’s all Blake Govers needs in Newcastle on Friday night to own the Hockey One scoring record outright.
The NSW Pride drag-flicker sits on 43 career goals, level with Joel Rintala at the top of the league’s all-time men’s list. His penalty corner against the Melbourne Cobras in Round One drew him level. One more against the Brisbane Blaze and the record is his alone, in front of a Newcastle crowd that knows exactly what it’s watching.
Friday night in Newcastle
Round Two opens at the Newcastle International Hockey Centre, Pride v Blaze, women at 6.30pm AEDT and men at 8.15pm.
The Pride women need a response. Grace Stewart scored four goals last week and still ended up on the losing side, beaten 5-4 by the debutant Cobras. The Blaze women are chasing a first win too, after a narrow loss to HC Melbourne. In the men’s game, Blaze captain Scott Boyde arrives off a Round One hat-trick, and Brisbane will lean on him again. But the night belongs to Govers if he scores. Records usually take weeks of build-up. This one could fall inside an hour.
Super Saturday: the rematch
Saturday is a double dose in Melbourne, and it starts with the one everyone circled: HC Melbourne v Perth Thundersticks, women at 1.00pm AEDT, men at 2.45pm.
It’s a rematch of last year’s women’s Grand Final, which Perth won 4-2 in this city. Both sides arrive unbeaten. Perth kept the only clean sheet of Round One, shutting out Tassie in Hobart, while HC Melbourne came from behind to win in Brisbane through Miri Maroney and Lisa Lejeune. There’s a twist in the home ranks too: Greta Hayes, Adelaide’s MVP last season, now wears HC Melbourne colours.
The men follow, and HC Melbourne have started their three-peat bid exactly how champions should, beating Brisbane 5-3 with three goals from Cooper Burns. Perth’s men lost 4-2 to the Tigers last week and can’t afford a second straight defeat this early.
The new kids meet the form team
Super Saturday closes with Melbourne Cobras v Canberra Chill, women at 5.00pm AEDT, men at 6.45pm.
The Chill were the only club to win both their Round One games, and they did it loudly: 16 goals across the double-header. The women scored seven, Lynn Krings helping herself to three, and the men hammered Adelaide 9-1 with four from Jake Staines. The Cobras women, though, won their first-ever match in a 5-4 thriller, Claire Colwill grabbing the late winner, and their men are chasing a first win after Hugh Snowden’s late double wasn’t quite enough against the Pride. Something has to give.
Sunday in Adelaide
The round ends at the State Hockey Centre, Adelaide Fire v Tassie Tigers, women at 1.00pm ACDT, men at 2.45pm, and it’s the Fire’s first home game of the season.
Adelaide’s women showed real fight in Canberra, banging in three goals in seven minutes through Georgina Dowd, Ella Bruce and Emma Kitto. The men, starting a new era under head coach Dan Mitchell, need to shake off that 9-1 hiding. Tassie’s men arrive on a high after beating Perth 4-2 with four different scorers. Their women were held scoreless by the champions and would happily take one scruffy goal to get going.
A reminder of why this league never drifts: there are no draws. Finish level and it’s a shootout, and a field goal earns you a conversion chance for a bonus goal, so sitting back gets you nowhere. Every Round Two match streams live and free on 7plus in Australia, and around the world on the Hockey One Global Pass.
