The NSW Pride have started the 2025 One Active Hockey One League season by taking full points from their opening round trip to the ACT, with both the Women’s and Men’s teams collecting impressive wins away from home against the Canberra Chill.
A comfortable 3-0 win for the NSW Pride Women came on the back of a stirring display of midfield dominance from Grace Young, and two dynamic goals from Abby Wilson, to place them as early leaders on the Hockey One ladder.
A tight tussle in the opening quarter was broken on nine minutes when Abby Wilson converted a penalty corner with a precise low drag-flick, But Canberra Chill managed to hold the Pride back and went into half-time only trailing by that single score.
Not long into the second half, though, Wilson again put herself on the scoresheet with a brilliantly-timed intercept of a Canberra defensive pass and made a solo run into the circle before cooly finishing with a powerful and low reverse-stick shot beyond the goalkeeper.
Just 2 minutes into the final quarter a lovely end-to-end team move featuring Mariah Williams, Grace Young, and Jenna-Rae McIntyre set up Laura Reid to score with a simple finish from 1 metre out to complete the victory.
Head Coach Scott Barker said in his post-game interview that he was happy that the team played for each other and got an way win to start the season.
“Defensively, to keep them [Chill] to zero is a fair achievement,” he said. “It was a focus leading into the game to try to minimise their goal scoring opportunities and obviously create as many as we can.”
Defender Maddison Smith led the defensive unit to the clean sheet and said she was proud of the efforts of her group to not concede in their opening game of the season, heaping special praise on Goalkeeper Grace Jeffrey filling in for the injured Jocelyn Bartram.
“Grace played really well,” Smith said. “She should be really happy with that result. Stepping in to Joce’s shoes is quite a big task but I think she was really up for it.”
The NSW Pride Men were not as comfortable as their counterparts, fighting out a 5-4 victory over the Canberra Chill and being forced to hold on defensively under pressure in the final minutes to claim the win.
Blake Govers converted a penalty corner with his trademark drag-flick in both the first and second quarters before James Jewell did the same once up the other end for Canberra to put the score at half-time 2-1 to the Pride.
Spanish International Albert Beltran then scored a field goal in open play and converted the goal to double his score on his Hockey One debut to give the Pride a nice buffer. That was followed by Sutherland Shire youngster Angus Callinan, also making his debut, scoring a fifth for NSW in the fourth quarter.
But with ten minutes left, Chill star Davis Atkin scored a wonderful goal from range and then completed a conversion to bring the scores back to 5-4, where it stayed until the final whistle as the Pride held on to secure a vital outright win over last year’s silver medallists.
Head Coach Kieran Govers was proud of the way the team fought to hold on to the win to open their season against quality opposition.
“They did what I asked of them, executed the game plan – probably ran out of legs a little bit because I asked a lot of them,” he said. “We knew Canberra were going to come back at us and, as you saw, they did, but we probably defended way too much than we thought we would have to.”
Defender Michael Taylor said the victory showed that his side still has what it takes to challenge for the league title and earned them some deserved respect for their efforts.
“It was a gutsy win. We made it a little bit harder than we probably wanted to, but at the end of the day three points is three points, so you have got to be happy with that,” he said.
The teams next travel to Narellan in the Macarthur region of NSW to play their first home matchday of the season against the visiting Tassie Tigers on Saturday, 18 October at 2:30pm. Get your tickets now via Intix.
Results
Saturday, 11 October 2025 at the National Hockey Centre, ACT
Women
Canberra Chill 0 – 3 NSW Pride
Goal scorers
9’ Abby Wilson (NSW)
36’ Abby Wilson (NSW)
47’ Laura Reid (NSW)
Men
Canberra Chill 4 – 5 NSW Pride
Goal scorers
7’ Blake Govers (NSW)
19’ Blake Govers (NSW)
21’ James Jewell (CAN)
41’ Albert Beltran (NSW)
41’ Albert Beltran (Conversion) (NSW)
48’ Angus Callinan (NSW)
50’ Davis Atkin (CAN)
50’ Davis Atkin (Conversion) (CAN)