Eagles take collective responsibility ahead of doubles

Image credit: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

It was a heart to heart in reflection of Saturday night's overtime loss with coaches and players alike taking responsibility that has Tim Symons confident in the East Perth Eagles hitting back with back-to-back NBL1 West doubles the next two weekends.

The Eagles did plenty right on Saturday at Willetton Basketball Stadium, but they also didn’t get the details right that coach Symons was looking for, but he wasn’t putting the blame on his players after the overtime defeat.

East Perth did put themselves in a strong position to take out the win with an impressive fourth quarter but ultimately lost after the first extra period to now sit in fifth position in the standings with a 7-4 record behind the Tigers who improved to 8-4 in fourth.

In the review of the game, the players put their hands up in front of the group to take responsibility for the things they got wrong in the game and Symons appreciated that honesty, and they were willing to take responsibility.

However, he too knew that he and the coaching staff could have done some things better too and the reflection was all about what went right, and wrong, in those opening four quarters for Symons and not overtime.

"The biggest thing for me is the reflection on the four quarters and not so much the overtime because that's when either team can come out and blaze away, and that's what Willo did with a couple of big early threes even though our zone had worked on shutting that down," Symons said.

"My reflection, though, is more over the four quarters and how we played, and how we executed, and we just didn’t do a good enough job to put Willo away.

"There's no excuse we can make as a team. Those girls (Abby Cubillo and Awatea Leach) went away to celebrate their culture which I think is awesome for the pair of them and I don’t think that had any impact on our performance, and neither did Emma (Clarke) being in a second game.

"Even with the apology I put to the team afterwards from my behalf, that was because I have to be transparent with my honesty. We've had Taylor Roberts playing around 30 minutes and then all of a sudden we go away from what has been working.

"We're trying to get Emma on her 20 minutes because that's what we're confined to, but then I only played Taylor Roberts for 12 minutes and that's on us as a coaching staff. We have to do a better job on understanding what has been bringing us success versus trying to find success."

Things now heat up significantly for the Eagles with back-to-back double headers over the next two weeks which could define the season and whether or not they are firmly a top four contending team, or just stuck in a battle to make the playoffs at all.

East Perth are well positioned with seven wins from 11 games, but these next four matches in the space of eight days are going to tell a lot about where the Eagles sit in the NBL1 West mix in 2025.

It all starts this weekend against the Perth Redbacks on Friday night at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre with the Eagles looking for a measure of revenge for a loss to them only three weeks ago at Belmont Oasis.

That leads straight into a clash away to the undefeated Cockburn Cougars on Saturday. Then next weekend, the Eagles are at home to the Perry Lakes Hawks on Friday and away to the Lakeside Lightning on Saturday.

Symons is realistic that the Eagles would accept going two from four given that leaves them just about in the same situation they are now heading into the final month of the season, but the aim is always going to be to go four from four and he sees no reason why that isn't possible.

"Double headers are interesting," Symons said.

"We've got to get through this at a worse-case scenario splitting them because the demon on the other side if you drop two lots of double headers and we're in a world of hurt.

"We will play our game plan based on what we know of each of the teams and obviously starting with this weekend we're looking for the win in both, but would accept splitting them as a bare minimum.

"There's a thing called realism where if we cop a real heavy game Friday night and then have to back up with top-of-the-ladder Saturday so it's an interesting one.

"We look to win every game, we're not looking to come second and we want that top four spot, and we want to get Eagles women where they belong. That's to be back playing in the finals and to get home finals for our supporters."