By Kate Allman
The Tassie Tigers will be hoping a large parochial home crowd will give them the edge as they look to freeze out two fiery Brisbane Blaze teams on Friday night at the Tasmanian Hockey Centre.
Catch all the action LIVE on Kayo or get along to the matches.
Tickets are available through Ticketek.
Brisbane Blaze dominated the Tigers in both the men’s and women’s leagues in the inaugural season. The Tigers men finished third in 2019 but will look to go better this year with a host of new national development squad members adding to the strength of Kookaburras veterans Eddie Ockenden, Josh Beltz, Jeremy Hayward, Jack Welch, Tim Deavin and Jeremy Edwards.
Kookaburras in the Brisbane Blaze Men’s Team are also poised to take flight – including busy bee Jake Whetton, Daniel Beale, Jacob Anderson and versatile defender Tim Howard.
On the women’s side, Brisbane Blaze is the hot favourite of 2022. They won the trophy in 2019 and still have a star-studded line up including current Hockeyroos Rosie Malone, Claire Colwill and Hannah Callum-Sanders. One loss is the absence of Hockeyroos midfielder Renee Taylor who will not play this season as she recuperates from a hectic international period following major hip surgery.
Despite the highly fancied Blaze team on paper, the Tassie Tigers women have a few dark horses, host of quality young local talent and international imports bolstering their pack.
Local star Madeleine Murphy, who will captain the team, returns to home colours after schooling American opponents in the highly competitive Big Ten conference of the US college system. Expect big things from her.
Tassie Tigers v Brisbane Blaze
Friday 30 September 2022
Tasmanian Hockey Centre (TAS)
Match Start: Women’s 6:30pm local (6:30pm AEST), Men’s 8:00pm local (8:00pm AEST)
Tickets: Click here for ticketing details
Broadcast: LIVE and exclusive on Kayo
Join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtags #TIGvBBZ #HockeyOne
Tassie Tigers Women’s team: 1.Sarah McCambridge, 2.Jillian Wolgemuth, 3.Hannah Richardson, 4.Maddi Brooks, 5.Taylor Brooks, 6.Raeleigh Phillips, 7.Maddy Murphy (c), 8.Cassie Sumfest, 9.Emily Donovan, 11.Eliza Westland, 12.Lou Maddock, 14.Brooke DeBerdine, 20.Beth Dobbie, 21.Lauren Canning, 25.Evie Dalton (gk)
Brisbane Blaze Women’s team: 1.Savannah Fitzpatrick, 2.Ambrosia Malone, 3.Casey Dolkens, 4.Ashley Fey, 6.Morgan Gallagher (c), 7.Hannah Cullum-Sanders, 8.Jade Smith, 12.Tatum Stewart, 13.Rebecca Greiner, 19.Morgan Mathison, 22.Britt Wilkinson, 23.Ruby Harris, 24.Claire Colwill, 30.Georgina West, 32.Emily Witheyman-Crump (gk)
Tassie Tigers Men’s team: 4.Hayden Beltz, 5.Benjamin Austin, 6.Joshua Brooks, 7.Joshua Mardell, 8.Joseph Murphy, 9.Jeremy Edwards, 11.Eddie Ockenden, 13.Joshua Beltz (c), 15.Kieron Arthur, 19.Tim Deavin, 20.James Bourke, 23.Henry Chambers (gk), 25.Max Larkin (gk), 26.Oliver Smith, 27.Gobindraj Gill
Brisbane Blaze Men’s team: 2.Shane Kenny, 3.Corey Weyer, 4.Hugh Pembroke, 5.Lucas Brown, 7.Joel Rintala, 9.Jacob Anderson, 10.Jayden Atkinson, 11.Michael Francis, 13.Ethan White, 14.Isaac Layton, 15.Cale Cramer, 16.Tim Howard (c), 17.Scott Boyde, 27.Jared Taylor, 32.Mitchell Nicholson (gk)