Lawton stands tall in key role

“She sacrificed a lot for the team and pushed through the pain. I reckon her effort was the difference for us. I tried to talk her out of Wednesday’s training just to recover but she’ll come to training, she’s just a machine.”

Emanuel said his team had passed its “biggest test of the season” with flying colours.

“No disrespect to Runaways or Mixens, but before last night, Neptunes were on top of the ladder and they’re a very good, strong team,” he said.

“They’ve been a team who are usually top four for the last 10 years so it was never going to be an easy game.”

With their 60-42 win over Phoenix Fierce, Saints outscored their opponent by 10 or more points for the third consecutive week and are showing no signs of weakness.

Their excellent defence has them sitting atop the ladder in the early stages, having conceded the fewest points to possess a fearsome +53 differential.

Meanwhile, Burdekin secured its first win of the early season, 49-29 against the SCALA Indigenous Diamonds, but it had to fight hard to overcome a strengthening Diamonds team, who led by two points at quarter-time.

After a heartbreaking twopoint defeat last week, the return of shooter Mackenzie Linton had the Silverlinks surging with confidence.

Diamonds coach Sharon Finnan-white said she had been impressed by the start and finish to a strong opening quarter.

“We have some young players in our team who are stepping up to Premier League level and have lots of positives to take into our next game,” Finnan-white said.

“An excellent captain’s game by Shakira Koskela.”

The 2022 premiers, Runaways, got off the mark with a 49-39 victory over the Marian Vixens Mixens after a challenging start to the season.