Entering round 10 off the back of consecutive losses to the Gold Coast Titans and Bond University Bull Sharks, the defending champions took care of the last-placed Brisbane South Wildcats with a 72-47 victory at Nissan Arena on Saturday night.
The Cougars followed up their round ten win with Sunday’s 50-40 victory over the Sunshine Coast Thunder, also at Nissan Arena, which had the potential for a greater margin if player combinations had been stable.
“I’m happy that we seemed to have turned a corner and are showing some improvements,” Cougars coach Liz White said.
“We’re still lacking consistency at times, but we’re on a better track than we have been. We’re starting to gel and work together, but we are still working on cutting back turnovers.”
The Cougars remain without captain Leesa Mi Mi (Queensland Firebirds replacement player) but have retained Ruby defender Gemma Hutchings as a permanent member of the team.
The Carina Leagues Club Tigers were the only other franchise to enjoy a clean-sweep weekend, with victories over the Bull Sharks (59-51) and the Wildcats (46-45) comfortably placing them in fourth spot on the ladder.
“Both games were impressive for us, in terms of our starts and finish,” Tigers coach Jo Morgan said.
“However we can’t have two different halves each game. We are still looking for consistency. In saying that though, I cannot be more impressed and proud of the girls this weekend in terms of the hunger to win and in challenging themselves and each other.”
Tigers captain Amy Sommerville made a successful return from injury across the weekend, showing encouraging signs of form after being sidelined since early May.
“Having Amy back tonight (Sunday) gave the opposition something else to think about, her composure and smart netball brain was pivotal in our second half,” Morgan said.
“Having her sitting back also gave our frontline some calmness. It was great to have her back, and great timing leading into the back end of the season.”
So close, yet so far for the Bull Sharks who matched it with both the Tigers (51-59) and Titans (43-49), but couldn’t quite get across the line in either game.
Bull Sharks coach Bec Stower described the weekend as “gut-wrenching” for her young sixth-placed side.
“In both games we had plenty of opportunities,” she said.
“We played catch-up to the Tigers the whole game, and we shouldn’t have really.”
Stower said around 700 people were at Carrara Indoor Sports Stadium on Sunday to see them take on the Titans in what was their one and only home game of the season.
“It could have been anybody’s,” Stower said.
“We got up by one in maybe the third quarter but that didn’t last long. We’re playing amazing netball in that the defenders are clean, the attack is lovely, but it’s just not consistent. We’re missing an ‘old head’ to stand up.”
The TAE Aerospace Ipswich Jets continue to showcase the advantage of experience and sit outright at the top of the ladder after a round 10, 58-50 win over the Titans.
Heading into their only game of the weekend, courtesy of a round 11 bye, the Jets enjoyed the goal-for-goal tussle with their closest rivals.
“It was a hard-fought match,” Jets coach Paula Stuart said.
“We were about 12 goals up and I made a few changes to give other opportunities. It was good to put my bench on, to give people a different go and have a crack.”
Stuart made special mention of her backline, whose efforts ensured the Jets had plenty of possession.
“All our defenders swapped around, and they did a great job, a really great job so it was more of a defensive game, that helped,” Stuart said.
“Our three circle defenders shared the load, rotated at different times, all did a great job to give the attackers enough ball.”
The Jets will be without goal attack Abigail Latu-Meafou for a massive round 12 clash with the Cougars, as she'll be in Samoa for family reasons.
It was a tough weekend for the Wildcats, who went down to the Cougars (47-72) and the Tigers (45-46), while the Thunder were also winless with just their one game being that loss (40-50) to the Cougars.
For the HART Sapphire Series fixture, results and ladder, please click here.
