Grand Final Rematch on Friday: Unbeaten HC Melbourne Host the Tigers, and Ephraums Is Coming in Hot
Round 5 couldn’t have picked a better opener. Friday night at Parkville, the unbeaten HC Melbourne men host the second-placed Tassie Tigers, and it’s a grand final rematch. That’s the whole sell, and it doesn’t need much more.
HC Melbourne arrive in frightening form. They went to Canberra last Friday with both sides unbeaten and left with a 10-2 win. Nathan Ephraums scored three goals inside five minutes and finished with five, Cooper Burns scored three, and the premiers are now three points clear at the top. Ephraums leads the men’s scoring race with 10 goals. When a forward is scoring like that, every game plan starts with his name and works backwards.
Tassie, though, are not coming to make up the numbers. They sit second after a 4-1 win over Brisbane in Hobart, a game they trailed until the final quarter before Oliver Stebbings and Ehren Hazell turned it around in four minutes. That’s the kind of win that builds a team’s belief. They also know how to win ugly: their women’s side took Brisbane to a shootout in the same round, and the men’s side have now shown they can come from behind late.
The context makes Friday even bigger. After four rounds, only two sides in the whole league are still perfect: the HC Melbourne men and the Perth Thundersticks women. Every unbeaten run ends somewhere, and Tassie would love nothing more than to be the team that ends this one, in a grand final rematch, on the premiers’ home turf.
Saturday brings NSW Pride against Canberra Chill at Sydney Olympic Park, and the Blaze travel to Perth to face the unbeaten Thundersticks women. Sunday heads to Bendigo, where the Melbourne Cobras play Adelaide Fire with both men’s sides still chasing their first win. But Friday is the main event. The premiers, the challengers, and a forward who just scored five in one game. Get to Parkville, or get to 7plus.
