Hockey One Round 3 Team Lists: Govers Chases His Own Record, Rintala Returns for Brisbane
Blake Govers broke the record last weekend. This weekend he gets to stretch it.
The NSW Pride striker goes into Round 3 on 44 Hockey One goals, the most any men’s player has scored in the league, and every goal he adds from here is a new mark. But the man he passed isn’t done. Joel Rintala, on 43, plays his first game of the season for the Brisbane Blaze on Saturday, a few hours after Govers faces Perth in Sydney. One weekend could flip the record straight back.
Friday night in Hobart is a scorer’s shoot-out
Before any of that, the league’s two hottest sticks meet head-on. Tassie Tigers v Canberra Chill in Hobart on Friday (men 6.00pm AEDT, women 7.45pm AEDT) pairs the two unbeaten men’s sides, and there’s nothing between them: both 2-0, both with 13 goals scored and three conceded, both sitting top.
Ehren Hazell and Jake Staines are joint top of the men’s scoring chart with five each. Hazell scored four in Adelaide on Sunday. Staines scored four on opening night. Something has to give in Hobart, and whoever blinks first also loses top spot.
The women’s game is a reset for both. Tassie’s women found their spark with a 5-1 win in Adelaide, while Canberra’s women lost for the first time, beaten by the Cobras. Canberra sit third, Tassie fifth, and the loser starts sliding.
Perth’s women are the team to beat, but the Pride are missing their top scorer
Saturday in Sydney (men 1.00pm AEDT, women 2.45pm AEDT) is the pick of the round in the women’s competition. Perth Thundersticks top the ladder and beat NSW Pride twice last year, including 6-0 in the semi-final. The problem for the hosts: they’re without Grace Stewart, the league’s leading women’s scorer with four goals.
The Pride do still have Amalia Patterson, who scored twice last week, and Jocelyn Bartram, who kept Brisbane scoreless in Newcastle. Perth’s men, meanwhile, are still chasing a first win after defeats to the Tigers and HC Melbourne, and Govers plus Samuel Mudford, who scored four on Friday night, is not the forward line you’d pick to face while winless.
Rintala’s return headlines a Brisbane basement battle
Saturday’s second double-header (men 4.00pm AEST, women 5.45pm AEST) is four teams with no wins between them. Brisbane Blaze v Adelaide Fire, and somebody finally gets off zero.
Rintala’s return is the headline, but Brisbane don’t lack goals: they’ve scored three in both games, with captain Scott Boyde hitting a hat-trick on opening night, and they beat the Fire 9-0 when these sides last met. Adelaide’s men opened the scoring against Tassie on Sunday through Mika Böttger, then conceded nine. Tightening up is the whole job for them this week.
In the women’s game, Brisbane come home after being held scoreless in Newcastle. Adelaide will lean on Georgina Dowd, Emma Kitto and Eliza Pannell to turn pressure into points before this season runs away from both clubs.
Sunday: the first Melbourne derby
Round 3 closes with a genuine first. Melbourne Cobras v HC Melbourne on Sunday (women 3.30pm AEDT, men 5.15pm AEDT), the first Melbourne derby in Hockey One history, at the State Netball and Hockey Centre.
The Cobras women hold the early bragging rights in the city. They’re unbeaten, and captain Claire Colwill has scored in the final four minutes of both games, the winner on debut and the clincher against Canberra. HC Melbourne’s women arrive hungry after losing the Grand Final rematch to Perth.
The men’s game flips it. HC Melbourne, the back-to-back champions, have won both games with 10 goals, three each for Cooper Burns and Duncan Jackson. The Cobras men are still chasing a first win. There would be no better place to get it.
Round 3 at a glance (PKT): Fri 23 Oct, Tassie Tigers v Canberra Chill, Hobart, men 12:00pm, women 1:45pm. Sat 24 Oct, NSW Pride v Perth Thundersticks, Sydney, men 7:00am, women 8:45am; Brisbane Blaze v Adelaide Fire, men 10:00am, women 11:45am. Sun 25 Oct, Melbourne Cobras v HC Melbourne, women 9:30am, men 11:15am. Every match streams live and free on 7plus in Australia, and internationally on the Hockey One Global Pass.
Catch up with our Hockey One Round 3 preview and the Round 2 results from Adelaide, and follow match days in the Live Centre.
