Brisbane and Melbourne showing APL form
Day two underway at Pine Rivers The pack is starting to settle as Brisbane Gold and Melbourne Roys emerged from round four with victories on the second day of the Australian Premier League.
After their thrilling victory last night Brisbane Gold continued hot form by seeing off Perth Suns. Taking the first set 10-4, and winning the second thanks to another piece of tactical genius, an eight shot power play catapulting the Gold to a record 12-4 win.
Yesterday’s fine bowling continued to run through the Roys, but they were pushed to a tie-break by Adelaide Endurance. The Melbournians took the first set 7-2 but were pegged back to a set a piece by an encouraging Endurance display, 5-2. But the crucial tie-break fell the way of Dylan Fisher’s men.
Rising to the top of the ladder, the Roys have three wins and 5.5 set points and lead the Gold by a squeak, only a 0.5 set point splitting the teams.
Featuring Steve Glasson OAM, Aron Sherriff and Karen Murphy, the Sydney Lions finally pounced on the points in a classic showdown with the high flying Blackjacks. The first set was a 4-4 struggle but the Lions roared to a 10-1 victory in the second via an amazing six shot power play in the penultimate end, leaving the Kiwi team somewhat slightly dazed.
The triumph was all in the tactics according to the Lions’ Steve Glasson, “We came out with a new tactic today – one of them included actually getting close to the jack and it seemed to work!”
“We weren’t devastated by yesterday, it’s not the start we wanted but this event has a long way to go,” added the former world number one. “We have to back that win up with another one, which would basically put us back in contention.
Round five of the Australian Premier League is currently underway at Club Pine Rivers, with the Roys battling Gold for top spot, Blackjacks taking on the Endurance and Suns against Lions. There are further games live on Fox Sports tonight from 5pm, featuring Lions v Gold, Endurance v Suns and the Roys v Blackjacks.
