Both NSW Pride teams competing in the 2025 Hockey One Finals suffered disappointing defeats in their Semi-Finals in Melbourne, and will now play the Bronze Medal matches on Sunday.
The Finals Series began on Saturday morning at the State Netball and Hockey Centre in Melbourne with the NSW Pride Women losing 6-0 to defending champions the Perth Thundersticks.
Late in the afternoon the NSW Pride Men lost their Semi-Final to HC Melbourne 9-3 to end their hopes of a title as well.
A depleted NSW Pride Women lost Hockeyroos Alana Kavanagh (broken hand) and Grace Stewart (hamstring tear) during the week, and New Zealand striker Jenna Rae-McIntyre (shoulder) passed a late fitness test on Friday to take part in the game but was heavily strapped and still restricted. The challenge of overcoming a resurgent Thundersticks became a classic bridge-too-far for the injury-ravaged Pride.
NSW Pride Women Head Coach said he was proud of the playing group for how they handled the adversity despite being disappointed with the result.
“Unfortunately we didn’t get the result we were looking for, but how do you define success? Sometimes it’s not the scoreboard,” he said.
“For me, you ask two questions: are we prepared to fight, and were we prepared to give everything we’ve physically got? And they did that,” Barker said.
Despite the loss, his side immediately turn their thoughts to the Bronze Medal match against the Adelaide Fire at 11:30am AEDT on Sunday.
“The players are already in the ice baths recovering,” he said. “After a loss the players want to get back, and they want to put a good performance in, and a performance that NSW Pride are proud of, and that’s what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
Forward Chelsea Holmes echoed her coach’s sentiments and was keen to see her side regroup.
“We started off really well in the first half, I’d say, especially with the Hockey One conversion [rule], we were only three goals out of it, so six-nil isn’t really reflective of the game,” she said.
“Definitely a tough pill to swallow after such a positive season, but we’ve got to look forward to tomorrow and reset for that game,” Holmes said.
It was a similar story in the Men’s match, with the defending Men’s champions HC Melbourne feeding off their home crowd and surging away to an early lead. Up 6-0 after three quarters, the Pride threatened a comeback with three goals early in the final quarter to bring the scoreline back to 6-3, but ultimately the risks taken in search of goals left the Pride vulnerable in defence which HC Melbourne exploited in the final minutes.
NSW Pride Men Head Coach Kieran Govers said that he remained proud of his players and how far they had come in the season, but that the result was disappointing.
“We gave it our all, it’s just disappointing that some of the patches of play we put out there wasn’t to our standard, but that’s hockey. When you come up against a classy outfit like those guys they’ll make you pay,” he said.
“I can’t fault anyone. I said in the changerooms before and after the match that I’m super proud of the boys, and super proud to lead the group, but with these conversion goals it’s a two goal swing,” Govers said. “We got the ascendancy going into the second quarter, but Jed [Snowden] their goalie, went bang-bang-bang and saved three of ours and two of them resulted in counter-attack goals, so that’s a two-point turnaround,” he said.
“Now they realise how hard, and how much skill-wise you need to be, and what level you need to be at consistently. Melbourne showed us that today, and hopefully it’s a good learning curve.”
The NSW Pride Men will play the Brisbane Blaze in the Bronze Medal match at 1:15pm AEDT on Sunday.