Round 2 Reset: Comets, Tide and Tuatara Turn the League on Its Head

Round 2 did not gently adjust the ahm NPL 2026 picture. It flipped it.

Across Pro and Division 2, early leaders were dragged back into the pack, winless sides found form, and a handful of players turned tight matches into statement results. If Round 1 gave the league its first shape, Round 2 made one thing clear: nothing is settled.

Comets go from bottom to the story of NSW

The sharpest reversal came in NSW Pro.

Comets entered Round 2 at 0-2, sitting at the bottom of the conference. By the end of the round, they had taken down the Round 1 leaders and closed with a 2-0 weekend.

Their 4-1 win over Heat was the first major shock. Heat had opened the season unbeaten, with Selina Turulja coming off a dominant 6-0 Round 1. But Comets broke the rhythm early. Nancy Ferguson and Michaela Haet took Women’s Doubles 22-20 over Turulja and Shannon Spencer, Stefan Djordjic won Men’s Singles 15-10, and Heat’s only rubber came through Spencer and Turulja in Women’s Singles.

Then came the real separator: Comets 3-2 over Stingers.

With the match in the balance, Haet and Guillermo Jacquet won Mixed Doubles 25-23 to seal it. Jacquet and Djordjic had already taken Men’s Doubles 22-17, but it was the mixed result that gave Comets the round and changed the conference. Haet finished 5-1 and took the NSW Pro Female MVP, while Ryan Henry’s 4-1 round for Stingers earned him the Male MVP.

Heat still sits on top cumulatively at 3-1, but after Round 2, NSW feels very different. Comets are no longer chasing relevance. They are in the fight.

Tide take control as Roos fall hard in VIC

VIC Pro produced the round’s cleanest power swing.

Tide came in at 1-1 and left Round 2 at the top of the conference. Roos came in as 2-0 leaders and left the round 0-2.

That contrast defined the weekend.

Tide’s 3-2 win over Roos was the round’s key result. Roos won both singles, with Ethan Chung and Sahil Dang taking Men’s Singles 15-11 and Natalie Fisher and Kat Valos winning Women’s Singles 16-14. But Tide controlled the doubles and the mixed. Ethan Butson and Joshua Fisher took Men’s Doubles 22-14, Ayesha Dang and memory lelenoa won Women’s Doubles 23-21, and Tide closed the match through a 25-23 Mixed Doubles win.

From there, Tide kept moving. They beat 29ers 4-1, with Butson again central: Men’s Doubles 22-11, Men’s Singles 15-6, and Mixed Doubles 23-21 alongside Ayesha Dang. Butson finished the round 6-0, the only unbeaten Pro Male of Round 2, while Ayesha Dang went 5-1 to claim VIC Pro Female MVP.

Roos, meanwhile, could not stop the slide. Their second loss came 4-1 to Adders, with Matthew and Timothy Kouznetsov taking Men’s Doubles 22-20, Tim winning Men’s Singles 15-6, and Matthew Kouznetsov and Emily Martin closing Mixed Doubles 22-17.

Tide now leads VIC Pro at 3-1. Roos are 2-2. One round was enough to turn the conference inside out.

Reef break open QLD after the tightest start in the league

QLD Pro entered Round 2 dead level. All four teams were 1-1 after Round 1, with the same points difference across the conference.

Reef broke the deadlock.

Their round opened with a 3-2 win over Brumbies, powered by the longest rubber of Round 2. Tayah Cross and Conor Robertshawe took Mixed Doubles 34-32, an extended overtime finish that gave Reef the edge. They also won Men’s Doubles 22-17 and Women’s Doubles 22-17, while Brumbies took both singles.

Reef then backed it up with another 3-2 win, this time over Outback. James Wilson and Robertshawe won Men’s Doubles 23-21, and Reef again found a way through Mixed Doubles, taking it 24-22.

Robertshawe finished 5-1 and claimed QLD Pro Male MVP.

The other major QLD Pro line came from Opals. Nicola Schoeman went 5-1 to take the Female MVP, while Crystal Mildwaters went unbeaten at 4-0 with a +40 points difference — the largest individual points difference across either division for the round. Together, Schoeman and Mildwaters produced one of Round 2’s most dominant moments: a 15-0 Women’s Singles win against Brumbies.

Reef now sits on top of QLD Pro at 3-1, with Opals and Outback at 2-2 and Brumbies at 1-3.

Division 2 gets even wilder

If Pro was volatile, Division 2 was chaos with a scoreboard.

Every Round 1 Division 2 leader lost the top spot by the end of Round 2. The only team across either NPL division still undefeated through two rounds is Tuatara.

In NZ D2, Tuatara beat Taika 3-2 in the round opener, then swept Taniwha 5-0 to move to 4-0 overall. Spencer Sandridge and Andy van der Vyver anchored the run. Van der Vyver finished Round 2 a perfect 4-0 across four games, while Sandridge took the NZ D2 Male MVP after playing eight games and winning five. Ellena Tavalea was the Female MVP for Taika, going 7-1 across eight games — the biggest individual win count of any MVP.

Tuatara’s position now stands alone: 4-0, unbeaten, and the only perfect cumulative record in the league.

In VIC D2, Roos delivered the round’s defining sweep. Their 5-0 win over Tide was clean and emphatic. Tam Le-Vo and Dan Markworth took Men’s Doubles 22-14 and Men’s Singles 15-6, while Letha Gaigher and Clare Butler won Women’s Doubles 22-9 and Women’s Singles 15-10. Mixed Doubles finished 22-11. Five rubbers, five wins, no narrow escape.

Markworth and Gaigher both finished 5-1 and took the VIC D2 MVPs. Roos now sit top of the conference at 3-1, ahead of 29ers on points difference.

In NSW D2, Bandicoots had the biggest fall. They were 2-0 leaders after Round 1. They went 0-2 in Round 2 and dropped to last by points difference. Their opening 3-2 loss to Aggies was particularly costly after taking the first two rubbers, only for Aggies to win Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles and Mixed Doubles. Kathleen Voon was central to that turnaround and finished the round 7-2 across nine games to take NSW D2 Female MVP.

Comets surged the other way. They beat Heat 4-1, then Stingers 3-2, with Kane Townsend anchoring the Men’s side and taking NSW D2 Male MVP at 5-2.

In QLD D2, the ladder moved hardest. Burras, Outback and Setters were all 2-0 after Round 1. By the end of Round 2, Burras had gone 0-2, while Reef and Opals had both climbed from 0-2 to 2-0 for the round.

Reef’s 5-0 win over Brumbies was the cleanest QLD D2 result. Sam Gibbs went 5-1 to take Male MVP. Opals’ 4-1 win over Burras was the bigger statement, taking down the team that had dominated Round 1. Ellen McDonogh went 5-1 to claim Female MVP, while Opals’ women’s side produced two 15-3 singles wins across the round.

The moments that shaped the round

Round 2 was full of tight finishes, but three stood out in Pro.

Reef’s 34-32 Mixed Doubles win over Brumbies was the longest single rubber of the round and the kind of result that can decide more than just one match. In VIC Pro, 29ers and Adders went deep into overtime in Mixed Doubles, with Daniel Kouznetsov and Isabelle Papazyan winning 29-27. In NSW Pro, Comets’ 25-23 Mixed Doubles win over Stingers sealed the conference’s biggest turnaround.

The dominant lines mattered just as much.

Mildwaters and Schoeman’s 15-0 Women’s Singles win for Opals was the standout Pro rubber. In Division 2, Reef, Roos and Tuatara all delivered 5-0 sweeps, while Saleen Ahmed, Yang, the Opals women, and the NSW D2 Comets all produced heavy individual margins.

What Round 2 really told us

Round 2 unseated early leaders and rewarded the teams that could adjust quickly.

In Pro, Comets changed the NSW conversation, Tide took control of VIC, and Reef separated itself from the QLD pack. Heat still leads NSW cumulatively, but the round proved that no early advantage is safe.

In Division 2, the picture is even more unstable. All four Round 1 leaders gave up top spot, QLD D2 swung violently in both directions, and Tuatara emerged as the league’s only undefeated team through two rounds.

Round 3 now becomes the test.

Were Comets, Tide, Reef, Roos and Tuatara the start of a new order — or just the latest turn in a season already refusing to sit still?