Force to be reckoned with after victorious start

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The Southern Force have sent a warning to their opposition with consecutive victories to open their 2012 Australian Netball League campaign, including a win over the league-leading Western Sting in round two.

The Force, who had the bye in the opening round last weekend, started their season on home soil at Netball SA Stadium with a 53-42 victory over the Territory Storm on Saturday before backing up to beat the Western Sting on Sunday.

After starting their season with four straight victories, including a 65-47 win over Queensland Fusion on Saturday in a top of the table clash, the Sting’s undefeated run was ended by the Force when they went down 56-48.

Despite the loss, the Sting remain at the top of the table with four wins from 5 games, two points ahead of the Fusion and four points ahead of 4 teams all level on four points apiece with two victories. 

The Australian Institute of Sport ended their Victorian hoodoo when they defeated the Fury 51-46 on Friday night for the very first time since the league’s inception in 2008, which included grand final losses in 2008 and 2009. The Fury bounced back to defeat Tassie Spirit 57-39 on Saturday and NSW Blues 65-49 on Sunday to sit in fourth with two wins from three games.

The Tassie Spirit are on track to record their best ever ANL season after recording their second win of the season courtesy of a convincing 62-46 victory over the Canberra Darters, who were coming off a confidence boosting 59-47 win over NSW Blues the day before.

The win sees the Spirit already eclipse their 2008, 2009 and 2011 seasons when they only recorded one victory and now they have their club record of three victories in a single year in sight with four games still to be played.

Both the Territory Storm and NSW Blues remain winless after the second round with both sides losing both their games on the weekend.

Round 2 Results:

AIS (51) defeated Victorian Fury (46)
Canberra Darters (59) defeated NSW Blues (47)
Western Sting (65) defeated Queensland Fusion (47)
Victorian Fury (57) defeated Tassie Spirit (39)
Southern Force (53) defeated Territory Storm (42)
Queensland Fusion (58) defeated Territory Storm (48)
Victorian Fury (65) defeated NSW Blues (49)
Southern Force (56) defeated Western Sting (48)
Tassie Spirit (62) defeated Canberra Darters (46)