Melbourne Cobras Men Finally Off the Mark — 10-3 Rout of Adelaide Fire in Bendigo
Four games, four defeats, and a whole lot of near misses. The Melbourne Cobras men finally got their win, and they did it in style — a 10-3 hammering of Adelaide Fire in Bendigo on Sunday.
Both sides arrived at the Bendigo Hockey Centre still hunting a first win of the season. Only one of them left with it. The Cobras were ruthless from the ninth minute, when Jake Whetton opened the scoring, and they never let the Fire back into it.
Whetton scored twice, in the 9th and 58th minutes, and converted the one-on-one shootout that follows a field goal in Hockey One both times. Peter Scott was the star of the show with three field goals, in the 27th, 36th and 40th minutes, converting two of his three shootouts. Gursahibjit Singh added the other in the 53rd minute.
Adelaide had their moments. Hassan Singh struck in the 5th minute and converted his shootout, and Mika Böttger pulled one back from a penalty corner in the 23rd minute. But the Fire couldn’t live with the Cobras’ pace once the goals started flowing, and the scoreboard kept ticking over.
What it means
This was coming. The Cobras had been close all season — level at 3-3 in Perth last weekend before the Thundersticks pulled away — and Sunday’s Bendigo double-header was their chance to show it at a home away from home. They took it with both hands. It was the second big men’s result of the round after Perth’s 9-2 demolition of Brisbane on Saturday, and it followed NSW Pride’s shootout win over Canberra Chill the same day.
The win lifts the Cobras to three points from five games. They’re still a long way off the top four, but the first win changes the mood completely. For our money, a side with Whetton, Scott and this much attacking firepower was never going to finish the season winless. Now the question is whether they can build on it.
Adelaide, meanwhile, are still searching. Five games, five defeats, bottom of the table. They’d shown real fight in Round 4, holding NSW Pride to a single goal, but the goals have dried up at the wrong end and the defence couldn’t cope in Bendigo.
The numbers
Scott’s treble takes him to seven goals for the season, level with Daykin Stanger and Ehren Hazell in the scoring charts. Whetton moves to six. Nathan Ephraums still leads the way with 13 for HC Melbourne, who have already booked their semi-final spot with five wins from five.
What’s next
The Cobras head to Hobart on Saturday 14 November to face the Tassie Tigers, while the Fire are back home in Adelaide against the unbeaten Perth Thundersticks the same day. Two very different tests, and after Sunday, the Cobras will fancy their chances in theirs.
