HC Melbourne Stay Perfect: 5-1 Win Over Tassie Tigers in Grand Final Rematch
Five from five. HC Melbourne’s men are still the team to beat in Hockey One, and Friday night in Melbourne only made that clearer.
The Grand Final rematch went the same way as the decider. HC Melbourne beat the Tassie Tigers 5-1 at the State Netball Hockey Centre, a year on from the 3-1 win that gave them the 2025 title. They’d already beaten Tassie 5-2 in Hobart on 12 October, so this wasn’t a surprise. It was a statement anyway.
Melbourne arrived with the league’s best attack and the top scorer in Nathan Ephraums, who had ten goals before the night started. Tassie came in second on the ladder, the closest challengers, with Ehren Hazell on seven. On the night, the gap looked every bit as wide as the table suggested.
It was also a week after Melbourne put ten past Canberra Chill, with Ephraums scoring three times in the first five minutes of that one. Nobody has found a way to slow them down yet, and the Tigers, for all their quality, didn’t manage it either.
The Tigers stay second for now, but Canberra can move past them on Saturday when the Chill visit NSW Pride. Melbourne, meanwhile, just keep winning. Five games, five wins, and the rest of the league is playing for the other three finals spots.
Round 5 continues on Saturday, with NSW Pride hosting Canberra Chill at Sydney Olympic Park and Perth Thundersticks hosting Brisbane Blaze. On Sunday the round heads to Bendigo, where Melbourne Cobras play Adelaide Fire. Both of those men’s sides are still chasing their first win of the season.
Melbourne’s women won the late game too, beating Tassie 6-1 under lights. That’s a separate story, and a good night all round for the hosts.
