ABL Round 7 Wrap

James Lane

Round 7 delivered exactly what you'd hope for in the post-Christmas round: packed stadiums, wild momentum swings, two extra-inning finishes, and a ladder that twisted almost by the hour.

Sydney stayed on top despite dropping another series split, while Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth spent the weekend punching holes in each other’s records, and briefly entering a three-way tie before the dust finally settled.

Bandits Stand Strong Against Leaders

Brisbane have spent much of this season chasing consistency. This weekend, they showed they can absolutely trade blows with the benchmark.

Friday’s Boxing Day opener set the tone. Sydney arrived with a 16–7 record and immediately looked the part, piling on four runs in the first inning. It should have been decisive.

Instead, Brisbane responded with three in the second, chipped away methodically, and completed a composed 6–4 comeback win that instantly lifted the mood.

Saturday swung hard in the opposite direction.

The first game was scoreless baseball at its most tense: nine innings of nothing, before Sydney finally broke through with four runs in the last to claim a 4–0 win. The nightcap followed a more familiar Sox script: early runs, a brief Brisbane response, then control. Five Sydney runs across the sixth and seventh sealed a 7–3 victory and put the series on a knife’s edge.

Sunday, meanwhile, delivered the weekend’s tightest finish.

Locked 2–2 from the second inning, then 4–4 after nine, the decider pushed into extras. Brisbane finally landed the winning blow in the tenth, outscoring Sydney 2–1 to take a 6–5 win, and a deserved series split.

Heat and Giants Can't Be Split

Friday night needed ten innings to find a winner. The Giants jumped out 3–0 after the first, only for Perth to claw back and tie it 4–4 by the fourth. It stayed deadlocked until Adelaide walked it off in extras for a 5–4 win.

Saturday brought fireworks.

Perth’s 12–10 victory was defined by one brutal inning: an eight-run seventh that flipped the game completely. Adelaide never scored more than two runs in any inning, but stayed close enough to threaten before falling short.

Sunday morning briefly broke the ladder.

Perth’s 4–1 win - built patiently with runs in the first, fifth and sixth - temporarily left the Heat, Giants and Bandits all tied for second, a perfect snapshot of how tight the season has become.

But that symmetry didn’t last long.

Just hours later, Adelaide reclaimed control. The Giants raced to a 3–0 lead after two, stretched it to 8–2 by the seventh, and withstood a late Perth surge to win 8–6. That game swung three teams’ positions: sending Adelaide back to outright second, Brisbane down to third, and Perth back to fourth.

Looking Ahead

After seven rounds (still with postponed games still outstanding), the standings read:

• Blue Sox: 18–9

• Giants: 12–14

• Bandits: 12–15

• Heat: 11–15

Sydney remain the league’s most reliable force, but the gap behind them has turned into a genuine brawl. Adelaide are surging, Brisbane are stubborn, and Perth are no longer rolling over.

Next week, the Blue Sox head to Adelaide, where the Giants will see a real chance to test the league leaders on their own surge.Meanwhile, the Bandits travel west to Perth, with both teams desperate to break free from the mid-table pack.