Eagles Semi-Final Preview Away v Flames

Image credit: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

When East Perth Eagles won the 2014 championship, they eliminated the Rockingham Flames on their home floor and as the only team to win in Geraldton, Warwick and Joondalup in 2025, a road semi-final holds no fears.

East Perth might have won nine games during the regular season opposed to the 19 to Rockingham with the Eagles finishing eighth and the Flames first, but Thursday night's semi-final at Mike Barnett Sports Complex looks a much tighter contest than that suggests.

There's no doubting the quality of the Flames who will be determined to bounce back from Saturday night's qualifying final loss to the Willetton Tigers, but what makes it a tight contest in preparation is what the Eagles are capable of.

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While East Perth didn’t always produce their best basketball throughout the 2025 season which is why they did just scrape into the playoffs at 9-13, but when they did play to their potential they showed they could be among the elite NBL1 West outfits.

The Eagles were the only team to beat the Buccaneers in Geraldton during the regular season, and they handed the Senators just one of two losses at Warwick Stadium with a 16-point victory.

Then last Saturday night in the elimination final, the Eagles beat the Joondalup Wolves at Arena Joondalup so now heading into this Thursday night's semi-final, East Perth have proven what they are capable of doing in tough environments on the road.

That's why coach Carl Filpo isn’t afraid of the task of taking on Rockingham while fully acknowledging what a tough test a team coached by Ryan Petrik, and featuring Isaac White, Emmett Naar, Ryan Godfrey, Tevin Jackson, Travis Durnin, Justin Beard, Laquinton Ross and Jervon Pressley present.

"It doesn't bother us to go and play in these tough environments that's for sure," Filpo said.

"As long as there's an atmosphere and a vibe then I think for my guys that gets them going for whatever reason.

"We're actually looking forward to going to Rockingham and we're not bothered about the away game at all, but we know we're going to have to be at our best.

"We know what a really good team they are with the MVP, they've got some elite bigs, they've got some shooters, they've got the ability to consistently score 100-plus point a game and there's a reason for that.

"They've also got the Coach of the Year and I think one of the best basketball minds in the country leading them, so we are going to have to be at our best."

On Saturday night, East Perth won a first finals game since the 2014 grand final when they beat the Wolfpack and going back to that championship season, it was the Flames that the Eagles beat to open the playoffs.

East Perth had finished the regular season in seventh place and Rockingham in second, but the Eagles were able to win Game 3 of that series at Mike Barnett Sports Complex on the way to then beating the Perth Redbacks in two games in the semi finals, and beating Geraldton in the grand final.

When the Eagles made a return to finals last year, it was hosting the Flames at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre only for Rockingham to score the victory to advance and end the season of East Perth.

Now Thursday night will be the first time that the Eagles and Flames have played in a finals match up at Mike Barnett Sports Complex since 2014, and it's their first meeting of the season at the venue.

The only time the two teams have played one another in 2025 was all the way back in the season-opener on April 4 when it was Rockingham who scored the 115-94 victory.

On that night, MVP Isaac White had 27 points and seven assists for Rockingham with Emmett Naar adding 26 points, eight rebounds and six assists, Callum Beard 16 points and three boards, Emmanuel Dech 13 points and four rebounds, Ryan Godfrey 11 points and two assists, and captain Justin Beard 10 points, seven boards and four assists.

It was a decidedly different looking East Perth team with then captain Taylor Young having 18 points and four assists while Max Rice top-scored in his debut with 19 points while Chier Maker added 16 points, Sharif Watson 13, Nick Filpo 13 and Matthew Lang 11 to go with five rebounds and four assists.

There was no Jonah Antonio at that point of the season for the Eagles but he was in blistering form last Saturday night against the Wolves not only having 23 points and five rebounds, four steals and two assists, but being outstanding defensively.

Lee Roberts also had 31 points and eight rebounds with Watson adding 10 points and 10 boards while Ioannis Dimakopoulos will look to have more of an impact on a floor that hit the game winning three-pointer in a preliminary final for the Wolves back in 2023.

Filpo likes the form that his team is in heading into the semi-final with the winner to face the Warwick Senators on Saturday night but by no means is denying the threat the Flames pose.

"We go into every game thinking that we're going to get them because you have to otherwise what's the point, but we know they are the top team for a reason," Filpo said.

"We just have to go in with our plan and that's really all we're focused on. We go into it with our plan, we'll be very measured in regards to what we do and we'll be looking at why they are third nationally in scoring efficiency, pace and all these things.

"We'll be looking at how to try to stifle that and break that down, and as long as we stick to the plan, it will either work or it won't.

"If it doesn’t, we'll adjust and if it does, then great we'll keep going with it. We go into it more with a clinical business style approach to it I suppose and it's any given Thursday in this case.

"We go in there and someone's going to win and someone will lose, and it is about who plays better on the night so that's the attitude we have."