Hockey One Heads to Bendigo: Winless Cobras and Fire Meet With Somebody’s Season Starting on Sunday

Somebody has to win on Sunday. That’s the whole story in Bendigo.

The Melbourne Cobras take Hockey One to their regional home at the Bendigo Regional Hockey Complex on Sunday 8 November, hosting the Adelaide Fire. The women’s game starts at 1.00pm AEDT (7.00am PKT) and the men’s at 2.45pm AEDT (8.45am PKT). Both men’s sides are 0-4 and still chasing a first win of the season.

The Cobras men have been getting closer. They were level at 3-3 in Perth, with Jake Whetton scoring twice, before the Thundersticks pulled away. Adelaide’s men, meanwhile, produced their best defensive showing of the season last time out, holding the Pride to a single goal. Neither side has cracked it yet, but the gaps are closing. One of them walks out of Bendigo with a win, and the other is left staring at 0-5.

The women’s game matters too

The Cobras women started the season with two wins and will want to get back on track after back-to-back defeats. The Fire women are still searching for their first points after a 7-0 loss to the Pride. It’s a different kind of pressure on each side: one trying to rescue a promising start, the other trying to get off the mark entirely.

Round 5 has already delivered elsewhere. HC Melbourne’s men opened the weekend with a 5-1 win over the Tassie Tigers, and their women won 6-1. NSW Pride’s women beat Canberra Chill 2-0, and the Pride men edged a 3-3 draw that went to a shootout. And in Perth, the Thundersticks women beat Brisbane Blaze 1-0, a late goal from Jolie Sertorio keeping their unbeaten season alive.

So Bendigo is the last word of the round, and it’s a good one. Two winless men’s sides, two women’s sides with something to prove, and a regional crowd that doesn’t get Hockey One very often. Somebody’s season starts on Sunday.