The inaugural Sultana Bran Hockey One League grand finalists have been determined, with the top two women’s and men’s teams to go head to head in the season deciders.
The Brisbane Blaze will feature in the Sultana Bran Men’s Grand Final when they come up against the unbeaten NSW Pride at the State Netball and Hockey Centre in Melbourne on Saturday 16 November 2019.
In the men’s competition, after a fiercely contested opening half that saw NSW Pride and HC Melbourne only split by a 3rd minute goal by the Pride’s Nathanael Stewart, the floodgates opened in the third quarter as the hosts piled on five goals in as many minutes to secure a 6-2 result and notch up their seventh straight win.
Kurt Lovett and Tim Brand both scored a brace for the Pride, while HC Melbourne’s two goals came from the stick of Craig Marais and captain Russell Ford.
Brisbane Blaze will be the Pride’s grand final opponents after a dominant 7-1 victory over the Tassie Tigers in Brisbane. The Blaze found themselves three goals up inside six minutes when Jake Whetton scored from open play and then converted the resultant one-on-one conversion opportunity, before fellow Kookaburra Jacob Anderson added the third.
A successful Joel Rintala drag flick made it 4-0 at half time leaving the Tigers needing to produce another monumental comeback similar to the one they pulled off against HC Melbourne a fortnight earlier.
A powerful drag flick from Jeremy Hayward gave the Tigers a glimmer of hope but the Wotherspoon brothers, Blake and Dylan, snuffed out any chance of an upset as the Blaze booked themselves another date with their State of Origin rivals.
The Sultana Bran Hockey One Men’s Grand Final is scheduled to start at 2pm AEDT with the Women’s Grand Final to follow at 4pm.
Tickets will go on sale at 3pm AEDT today through Ticketek. The Sultana Bran Hockey One Grand Finals will be LIVE and exclusive on Fox Sports.
Sultana Bran Hockey One 2019 Season – Semi Final Results
NSW Pride 6 (Stewart 3’, Lovett 38’/44’, Brand 41’/41’, Willott 43’)
HC Melbourne 2 (Marais 39’, Ford 55’)
Saturday 9 November 2019
Sydney Olympic Park Hockey Centre (NSW)
NSW Pride Men’s team: 1.Lachlan Sharp, 2.Tom Craig, 5.Ash Thomas (GK), 6.Matthew Dawson (c), 8.Nathanael Stewart, 12.Kurt Lovett, 18.Tristan White, 19.Jack Hayes, 20.Ky Willott, 22.Flynn Ogilvie, 23.Ryan Proctor, 24.Dylan Martin, 28.Sam Gray, 29.Timothy Brand
HC Melbourne Men’s team: 1.Craig Marais, 2.Max Hendry, 3.Simon Borger, 7.Will Gilmour, 9.Nathan Ephraums, 10.Russell Ford (c), 12.Connar Otterbach, 14.Jonathan Bretherton, 15.Josh Simmonds, 17.Kiran Arunasalam, 18.Johan Durst (GK), 21.Jake Sherren, 25.Aaron Kleinschmidt, 29.Oscar Wookey
Brisbane Blaze 7 (Whetton 4’/4’, Anderson 6’, Rintala 25’, B.Wotherspoon 43’, D.Wotherspoon 55’/55’)
Tassie Tigers 1 (Hayward 33’)
Saturday 9 November 2019
State Hockey Centre (QLD)
Brisbane Blaze Men’s team: 2.Shane Kenny, 3.Corey Weyer, 4.Hugh Pembroke (c), 5.Scott Boyde, 7.Joel Rintala, 9.Jacob Anderson, 10.Robert Bell, 12.Jake Whetton, 15.Justin Douglas, 16.Tim Howard, 19.Blake Wotherspoon, 23.Daniel Beale, 26.Dylan Wotherspoon, 32.Mitchell Nicholson (GK)
Tassie Tigers Men’s team: 2.Nicholas Leslie, 4.Hayden Beltz, 11.Eddie Ockenden (c), 12.Sam McCulloch, 13.Josh Beltz, 14.Jack Welch, 15.Kieron Arthur, 18.Grant Woodcock (GK), 19.Tim Deavin, 20.James Bourke, 21.Ben Read, 27.Gobindraj Gill, 29.Sam McCambridge, 32.Jeremy Hayward