Nine. Tassie Put Nine Past Adelaide: Hockey One Round 2 Ends in a Rout

Round 2 of Hockey One ended in Adelaide on Sunday, and it ended badly for the home side. Tassie Tigers won both games, scored fourteen goals across the afternoon, and left the Fire still looking for a first win of the season.

Men: Adelaide Fire 1-9 Tassie Tigers

Nine goals. In Adelaide’s first home game of the season, under a new head coach. That’s not a bad day, that’s a warning sign.

Adelaide actually scored first. Böttger converted a penalty corner in the 4th minute, and for four minutes the home crowd could dream. Then it unravelled. Bird equalised from a corner in the 8th, and Ehren Hazell took the game away. Hazell scored a field goal in the 18th and converted it, then did exactly the same thing in the 45th, four goals’ worth of damage from one player under Hockey One’s field-goal-plus-conversion scoring.

Sam McCulloch (20′), Tim Deavin (30′, corner) and Hoey (34′) scored between Hazell’s bursts, and Stebbings added a ninth from a corner in the 56th. The Tigers men have won both their games, after beating Perth 4-2 in Hobart in Round 1, and they’re scoring in bunches: thirteen goals in two matches.

Adelaide’s problem is at the other end and it’s getting worse. Hockey Tasmania’s own preview noted the Fire came into this game off a 9-1 loss in Canberra in Round 1. Two rounds in, they’ve now conceded nine twice. Dan Mitchell’s first home game was supposed to be a reset. It turned into a second alarm bell.

Women: Adelaide Fire 1-5 Tassie Tigers

The women’s game was closer than the men’s and still not close. Tassie’s women arrived winless and scoreless after Perth kept them out in Round 1, and they fixed both problems in two minutes. Camila Raposo scored a field goal in the 18th minute and converted it. Penny Squibb, back facing her old side, added a penalty corner in the 20th.

Pannell pulled one back for Adelaide in the 48th, but Beth Dobbie closed the door late, scoring a field goal in the 55th and converting that too. 5-1, Tassie’s first win of the season, and Adelaide’s women join their men at the bottom of the early ladder without a point.

That’s what a good Sunday looks like for a travelling team. Two wins, a striker in Hazell who can’t stop scoring, and first points on the board for the women. For Adelaide, Round 3 can’t just be about effort. It has to be about not conceding nine.

Sunday’s scores (State Hockey Centre, Adelaide): Men: Adelaide Fire 1-9 Tassie Tigers (Adelaide: Böttger 4′; Tassie: Bird 8′, Hazell 18′ FG + conversion and 45′ FG + conversion, McCulloch 20′, Deavin 30′, Hoey 34′, Stebbings 56′). Women: Adelaide Fire 1-5 Tassie Tigers (Adelaide: Pannell 48′; Tassie: Raposo 18′ FG + conversion, Squibb 20′, Dobbie 55′ FG + conversion).

Next up in Round 3: Tassie host Canberra Chill in Hobart on Friday 23 October, and Adelaide travel to Brisbane on Saturday 24 October.