Ogilvie Finally Gets His Thundersticks Debut as Perth Come Home to Face the Cobras
Perth finally get to play at home. After three games on the road, the Thundersticks take the field at Perth Hockey Stadium for the first time this season on Sunday, against the new Melbourne Cobras, and the team news alone makes it worth watching.
Flynn Ogilvie is the story. The experienced midfielder-forward is named in the men’s squad again, in place of Sam Ashton, and this time he looks set to actually pull on a Thundersticks shirt. He was supposed to make his return to Hockey One action in Sydney last weekend before a late withdrawal ruled him out. Now he is poised to debut for Perth, three years after he last played in the competition for NSW Pride in 2023.
Ogilvie knows what winning this league takes. He was part of Pride’s title-winning campaigns in 2019 and 2022, and the 2022 triumph came against a Thundersticks side featuring current head coach Tim Geers, assistant Tyler Lovell, and current players James Collins, Brodee Foster, Tom Harvie and Cam Geddes. Since then he has driven UWA to the 2025 WA Premier League premiership and picked up the Olympian’s Medal as the competition’s Fairest and Best player. That is a serious addition for a side that has just found its feet.
Perth’s men need it. They broke through for their first win of the season last weekend, 3-1 over NSW Pride in Sydney, and a second straight win at home would change the shape of their season. The Cobras men are still searching for a first win, but they have shown plenty across their opening games against Pride, Canberra Chill and HC Melbourne. And there is a lovely subplot: former Thundersticks goalkeeper Ben Rennie is expected to line up for the Cobras against his old side.
Pickering is back for the women
The women’s side has made two changes, and one of them matters a lot. Lexie Pickering returns after injury sidelined her for much of the 2026 TeamStar Premier League season with UWA. She finished as Hockey One’s leading women’s goalscorer in 2024 and played a key role in the club’s back-to-back championship triumphs. Georgia Hiskins is back too, for her third Hockey One appearance, after missing last week’s win over NSW Pride. Bellé Ramshaw and Sophie Nation drop out.
Perth’s women have won all three away games so far, over the Tassie Tigers, HC Melbourne and NSW Pride, and they chase a fourth straight win. The Cobras women are no soft touch, though. They have already beaten NSW Pride and Canberra Chill this season and pushed HC Melbourne all the way in a narrow 2-1 defeat last weekend.
For our money, Perth should win the men’s game in front of their own crowd. But if Rennie has one of those days against his former club, and the Cobras score first, this gets very interesting very quickly.
The women’s game is at 2:00pm AWST (11:00am PKT) and the men’s game at 3:45pm AWST (12:45pm PKT) on Sunday at Perth Hockey Stadium, streamed on 7plus.
Related:
https://sportscursor.com/perth-thundersticks-melbourne-cobras-sunday-hockey-one-31-october-2026/
