Eddie a hero in brilliant revival
A FINAL-QUARTER hattrick from Eddie Ockenden has seen the Tassie Tigers roar back from 5- 1 down late in the third term to defeat HC Melbourne 6-5 in Hobart.
In doing so, Ockenden’s Tigers side assured themselves of a semi-final appearance against either the Brisbane Blaze or NSW Pride, with one round of Hockey One action still to play.
In arguably the most exciting finale the Tasmanian Hockey Centre has witnessed, Ockenden completed his hat-trick yesterday with a field goal and conversion with just 70 seconds remaining on the clock to snatch victory.
Ockenden spoke postmatch glowingly about the Tigers’ resilience and willingness to play a hard-working and tough brand to compete across the field.
“We were up and down in the first half and we had to be tougher in the second half all over the field,” Ockenden said.
“Teams can score quickly in the Hockey One and we still felt we could compete with them on the field, so the belief was always there, and things started falling for us.”
After dominating the early exchanges with little to show for it, the Tigers found themselves 5-1 down as late as the 43rd minute with only Sam McCambridge able to hit the target for the home side.
“With the scoreboard against us, I tried to get more involved by leading back into the midfield a bit more and tried to win some penalty corners for Jez Hayward to get us within striking distance. When he scored, we were well within range,” Ockenden said.
“We rode a big patch of momentum towards the end with the crowd behind us providing great atmosphere and the difference between the first and second half was being tougher for longer.”
It was McCambridge who struck his second goal to start the tide, before Hayward buried an unstoppable penaltycorner flick seconds into the shadows of three-quarter time.
The vocal Tigers supporters’ group were full of voice when Ockenden deflected home within a minute of the restart, but the winner would not come until the final moments.
With Tigers goalkeeper Grant Woodcock withdrawn in place of an 11th field player, Ockenden appeared at the back post to knock home an equaliser and duly rounded the goalkeeper to put the nail in Melbourne’s coffin.