Filpo's faith in covering for Antonio absence

Image credit: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

The East Perth Eagles always knew they'd be without Jonah Antonio for this four-game in eight-day stretch and coach Carl Filpo is confident his teammates will stand tall to keep them in the NBL1 West playoff hunt.

The Eagles men did miss a chance on Saturday night against the Willetton Tigers to join both the Kalamunda Eastern Suns and Perry Lakes Hawks on six wins for the season, and to be just behind the Goldfields Giants and Mandurah Magic who are on seven.

Those four teams occupy sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth position but the Eagles are still hot on their hammer coming into two consecutive double-header weekends starting this Friday at home to the Perth Redbacks and then away to the Cockburn Cougars on Saturday.

The Eagles then host the Perry Lakes Hawks next Friday night before being on the road to the Lakeside Lightning on Saturday in what could very well be a four-game stretch that defines their 2025 season.

But looking back on Saturday night's game against Willetton where East Perth lost by a solitary point, it was a great missed opportunity and in hindsight Filpo felt his team didn’t adjust quick enough to identifying the Tigers' threats in the absence of leading scorer and import forward Taeshon Cherry.

"It definitely did get away from us, but for a period during we did feel it slip even though we got back into it," Filpo said.

"I think the last two games really gave us some confidence and showed us that we can stand up against adversity, and that we were a resilient team which came through again in that second half.

"We were feeling great coming into the game and we had a plan, which we had to adjust pretty urgently when they were without Cherry so we had to focus more on multiple guys. It made them a bit less predictable so that was the challenge and I don’t think we were quick enough to adjust.

"(Roosevelt) Williams definitely got away from us early and that gave us a bit of a shock, but to our boys' credit they adjusted even though it took that little bit too long. Our second half was really good and showed good signs still with us having a chance to win."

Now looking ahead to this block of four games for the Eagles over the next two weeks, while Filpo knows how important the pair of doubles will be in the context of the season, he and his team can't look past the Redbacks this Friday at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre.

The Redbacks are a team who has the wood over the Eagles for whatever reason including beating them at Belmont Oasis just three weeks ago even without Joe Cook-Green, Callan McDonald, Jacob Formosa and East Perth championship winner Mathiang Muo.

That's all that Filpo will have his team focused on this week before they turn their attention to being away to the Cougars on Saturday night.

"I know it's going to sound cliché but we can't afford to do anything but take it one game at a time," Filpo said.

"We talk about the block of four games but then we just turn our full focus to Redbacks on Friday night and that's all we talk about as a group. We'll go into that game and that's all we'll be talking about, and all we'll be preparing for.

"As coaches we'll be ready to go for Cougars the next night and will have a team meeting on Saturday to go through that scout, but we won't talk about that until then. The full focus is getting the win on Friday night and what we have to do to make that happen."

The other challenge for the Eagles is that they will be without Jonah Antonio for these four matches while he is in Mongolia as part of the Australian Gangurrus team at the FIBA 3x3 World Cup.

That's as good a reason as you can get for a player to have to miss club games so he can represent his country and Filpo is happy for Antonio to be getting that opportunity, and is confident the players remaining will step up to cover for his absence adequately.

"We'll miss him for sure but I'd like to think we have a deep roster with guys who can fill the gap. He will be sorely missed no doubt, but just like other teams have done against us, we'll need other guys to step up," Filpo said.

"And from a players perspective, I think the way they view it is that they're not worried about being without him, it's an opportunity for everyone else to get it done.

"They know what their job is and I'm sure they will go out there to do it to the best of their ability. We'd obviously love to have Jonah, but we knew all along that we wouldn’t have him for this stretch of games so we'd already planned for it and the guys are already ready so I'm sure it will be fine.

"We're also rapt for him to be playing for Australia and there's no way we'd ever have a problem with anyone going away to do what he's doing. Good on him and we're proud for him."