Hockey One Round 3 Opens in Hobart: Tassie Tigers v Canberra Chill, the League’s Two 2-0 Men’s Teams
Friday night in Hobart opens Round 3 of Hockey One, and the men’s match is as good as this league gets right now.
Tassie Tigers v Canberra Chill at the Aurora Energy Tasmanian Hockey Centre (men 6.00pm AEDT, women 7.45pm AEDT). Look at the men’s numbers: both teams are 2-0. Both have scored 13 goals and conceded three. They are joint top of the league with identical records, and something has to give.
Then there’s the scoring race sitting inside the match. Tigers’ Ehren Hazell has five goals already this season. So does Canberra’s Jake Staines. Five each, head to head, on the same pitch on the same night. You couldn’t script the fixture list better if you tried.
The Tigers’ men’s list is stacked with experience, Hayden Beltz, Tim Deavin and Samuel McCulloch around Hazell. Canberra bring the Staines brothers, Jake and Ben, plus Dylan Brick, Anand Gupte, Davis Atkin and Dutch international Douwe Steens. That’s a lot of quality for a Friday night in Hobart.
In the women’s match, both sides are 1-1. The Tigers women won 5-1 in Adelaide last round and sit fifth, while the Chill are third despite losing to the Cobras in Round 2. First game of the season at home for Hobart, and the home crowd tends to matter in this league.
The rest of Round 3 follows across the weekend: NSW Pride v Perth Thundersticks and Brisbane Blaze v Adelaide Fire on Saturday, then the first Melbourne derby of the season, Cobras v HC Melbourne, on Sunday.
Australian viewers can watch on 7plus, and the Hockey One Global Pass carries it internationally. Our money’s on the men’s game being decided by whichever of Hazell or Staines blinks first.
The squads in full: today’s Hockey One Round 3 team lists, the Friday hockey guide, and the Live Centre.
