The NSW Pride Women and Men both produced stirring fightbacks on Friday night to produce memorable wins in Round 4 of the One Active Hockey One League against the Brisbane Blaze in Brisbane.
The traditional NSW-Queensland rivalry was reignited as the highly-rated sides featuring some of the biggest names in Australian hockey went head-to-head in what might be an enticing look at possible final fixtures at the end of this month. In both matches Brisbane Blaze asserted early dominance and established solid leads on the scoreboard only to be reeled back in and ultimately defeated by the visiting NSW Pride.
In the Women’s match, Blaze stars Savannah Fitzpatrick and Dayle Dolkens scored in the first half to give Brisbane a 3-0 lead in front of their home fans against the ladder-leading NSW going into the main break. A passionate half-time talk fired up the Pride, though, and within 2 minutes after the resumption of play New Zealand import Jenna-Rae McIntyre scored with a reverse-stick shot from an angle to put NSW on the board.
As the third quarter advanced, NSW established control of the play, and in the 41st minutes scored again through superstar Mariah Williams, who hammered home a powerful reverse-stick shot high into the top corner of the net to leave the Blaze goalkeeper stunned. Just minutes later NSW levelled the scores with Alana Kavanagh scoring with a close-range deflection from a penalty corner to set up another classic finish to a Pride v Blaze match.
In the final quarter both teams created chances, but with just 3 minutes remaining Chelsea Holmes scored the winner for NSW when a rebound from a Blaze defender during a penalty corner sat up nicely for her and she volleyed the ball out of mid-air into the top of the net, delivering the Pride all 5 points for the 4-3 win in regulation time.
Post-game Holmes talked up the resilience and toughness of her side to win away from home against a quality opponent.
“We just reminded ourselves of how quickly Hockey One games can change, so we just had to stay patient and control the controllables,” she said.
On scoring the winning goal, Holmes spoke of the training the team had done for just these situations and the instinctual nature of taking the chance.
“It just kind of popped up, and I was like – do I swing? Do I swing?” she said. “I was just on the end of a ball up in the air so I swung, and luckily it went in,” Holmes said.
NSW Pride Women Head Coach Scott Barker was pleased with the win from the challenging road trip, but put the question to his team during the half-time break when his side was trailing 3-0.
“Do we have a soft underbelly, or are we resilient? That’s what I asked them, and they answered the question,” Barker said.
Now four wins from four matches and mathematically guaranteed to qualify for the finals, Barker was keen to impress they still had work to do and were focused on winning the competition, but that they would enjoy what they have done so far.
“We’ll enjoy tonight, we’ll enjoy the small victories, and we have the bye next week so we can freshen up a little bit,” he said.
“Ultimately we’ve still got three weeks of hockey to go, so we won’t get ahead of ourselves,” Barker said.
It was a tighter affair in the Men’s match, ending tied 2-2 after regulation time and requiring a shoot-out to determine the winner on the night, which NSW Pride ultimately triumphed 4-5.
For three quarters both sides traded blows without success, as the goalkeepers and defenders frustrated some of the biggest goalscorers in world hockey at both ends. But early in the final quarter the deadlock was broken from the penalty spot as Blaze star Joel Rintala converted from 7 yards out. Brisbane then doubled their lead in the 50th minute through Daykin Stanger to look like they would take full points from the night.
But in the final minute of regulation time Nathan Czinner weaved some magic in the circle and scored a field goal to give his side a glimmer of hope, and then doubled his tally with a successful one-on-one conversion to leave the sides tied at the full-time siren and forcing them to play a shootout to determine who took the bonus point.
NSW Pride goalkeeper Ash Thomas saved Brisbane’s second one-on-one from their five attempts to give his side the advantage, and his team-mates converted all five of their attempts to seal the 4-5 shoot-out win and collect an important three points from the night.
NSW Pride Men Head Coach Kieran Govers was proud of the effort and fight shown by his team to stay in the game and equalise late, and especially pleased with the performance of Ash Thomas.
“We knew they [Brisbane] were going to come out really hard, as they did. They’re a really good bunch of players, the Brissy team, coached really well,” Govers said. “Very proud of Ash. He’s probably battered and bruised – he copped a fair few whacks. He kept us in the game, to be honest,” he said.
Young defender Dylan Downey had another excellent game and spoke highly of the team effort to get the win.
“It was a great effort from the boys. I think it’s a good example to never give up till the end – awesome from the boys,” he said. “It’s awesome to come away from the Sultan of Johor [Cup in Malaysia] with a Gold Medal and come into this level of hockey,“ Downey said. “All this high-level hockey excites me.”
Both teams now enjoy a bye this weekend before their next home matchday in Goulburn against Adelaide Fire on Friday, 14 November.
Results: Friday, 31 October 2025 at the Queensland State Hockey Centre, Brisbane, QLD
Women
Brisbane Blaze 3 – 4 NSW Pride
Goal scorers
24’ Savannah Fitzpatrick (BRI)
27’ Dayle Dolkens (BRI)
27’ Dayle Dolkens (Conversion) (BRI)
32’ Jenna-Rae McIntyre (NSW)
41’ Mariah Williams (NSW)
43’ Alana Kavanagh (NSW)
57’ Chelsea Holmes (NSW)
Men
Brisbane Blaze 2(4) – 2(5) NSW Pride
Goal scorers
46’ Joel Rintala (Penalty Stroke) (BRI)
50’ Daykin Stanger (BRI)
60’ Nathan Czinner (NSW)
60’ Nathan Czinner (Conversion) (NSW)