Nissan Arena will be home to every round four match on Saturday evening, before round five heads to the Sunshine Coast and Springfield on Sunday.
A wounded ACU Brisbane North Cougars side, coming off an upset loss to the Gold Coast Titans last weekend, will have to swiftly return to its best against a rested Carina Leagues Club Tigers outfit and the undefeated TAE Aerospace Ipswich Jets.
“Our errors are pretty generic so we need to fix those and it won’t matter who we’re playing,” Cougars coach Liz White said.
The Cougars “imploded” during their defeat to the Titans according to White, who was left rueing a game of mistakes under pressure.
The Tigers will lean on the advantage of fresh legs off a bye, as they’ll be challenged not only by the Cougars, but by competition heavyweights the Titans.
Former Suncorp Super Netball player Amy Sommerville is a glaring omission from the Tigers list, with a lower leg niggle ruling her out of this weekend’s action.
“We have collectively agreed that a double-header isn’t an ideal format to return and test a niggle,” Tigers coach Jo Morgan said.
“It provides opportunity for others to step up and test (at) the Sapphire level.”
Morgan said they're approaching the weekend with a one-game-at-a-time mentality.
“If we look too far ahead we forget our targets, goals, key skills for this particular game,” she said.
“They are two very different sides and different attributes that need to be analysed.”
The Jets, meantime, are flying high at the top of the table after an impressive start to the season, yet haven’t matched up against the more experienced teams until this weekend when they face the Sunshine Coast Thunder and host the Cougars.
“We’ve got two of the hardest teams on one weekend that’ll be taking it to us,” Jets coach Paula Stuart said.
“It’ll be tough and we’ll have to look after ourselves. They do play quite differently so we’ll look at different moves to combat both teams. It’ll be a tough weekend for us I think but we’ll be on home turf and Ipswich is looking forward to us being there.”
As for the Brisbane South Wildcats, they’ll be aiming for a second consecutive victory after breaking a two-year losing streak with last weekend’s surprise win over the Thunder.
A round five bye means they have only one game to focus on, but it’ll be critical for them on a number of fronts.
“We’ve got the TItans on Saturday so it’ll be a big one,” Wildcats coach Megan Lynch said.
“It’ll be a physical game, so we’ll have to be strong and tough onto the ball, and work hard on the ground.”
The Thunder return home to UniSC Arena for a second time this season when they host the Bond University Bull Sharks on Sunday, after Saturday’s game against Stuarts’ Jets at Nissan Arena.
While the Bull Sharks also have just the one game to prepare for, with a bye scheduled for Saturday.
For a comprehensive draw, and the live HART Sapphire Series ladder, please click HERE.
KOMMUNITY TV
Round 4, May 13
TAE Jets v SC Thunder
4pm Ruby, 6pm Sapphire
Round 5, May 14
SC Thunder v Bond University
4:30pm Sapphire, 6:30pm Ruby
