Optimism for Eagles ahead of Senators challenge

East Perth Eagles coach Carl Filpo sees a lot of similarities to where his team sat in 2024 to how they've started this NBL1 West season, in fact he is feeling more optimistic because he likes a lot of what they are doing so far.

The Eagles suffered a heartbreaking loss on Saturday night at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre against the Joondalup Wolves where they were leading by three with a second to go and just needed to avoid a disaster.

A disaster is what happened when they sent Wolves import Joey Baker to the line when he was attempting a prayer of a three-pointer, and then in the extra period the Wolfpack took over for the eventual 108-98 victory.

The similarities are stark to the Eagles' fourth game of the 2024 season where they blew a game also from a winning position albeit that one was on the road to the Perth Redbacks at Belmont Oasis.

The similarities don't end there. For the second straight season now the Eagles have started with just one win from the first four matches and on both occasions the lone wins have come over the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

The response last year to that heartbreaking loss from the Eagles was to win the next week by 27 points over the Perry Lakes Hawks. Then to end up winning 10 of the next 13 games on the way to making a first finals appearance since the championship win of 2014.

Being able to pull off a similar turnaround is still ahead of the Eagles with the first chance to try and hand the Warwick Senators a first loss of the season this Friday night with Elijah Pepper arriving to Peter Campbell Basketball Arena averaging a remarkable 49.7 points a game in 2025.

While like any 1-3 team Filpo is fully aware the Eagles have plenty of areas to improve on, but reflecting on that game against the Wolves and he liked a lot of what he did and he remains positive about what lies ahead if they can continue playing that way.

"At this stage of the season I think we look at how we're playing. The wins and losses are obviously important but it's still very early and we go into Game 5 with the same record that we had last year," Filpo said.

"It's not where we wanted to be but we like more of the way we are playing. This time last year, we weren’t happy with how we were playing but in terms of that game against Joondalup, for the most part that's how we want to play.

"We had some lapses in the fourth quarter whether it be the last play obviously or us over helping off CD (Caleb Davis) a couple of times or a couple of silly turnovers or fours, and that fourth was match defining.

"But outside of that and we were reasonably happy with how we played and the game review was actually an easy one. Normally on a loss they are tough to review and there's mistakes all over the place, but this was a rare case where we actually played pretty well.

"No game is perfect and you look at the stuff that cost us the win in the end, but we were happy with a lot of what we saw and defensively it was definitely a marked improvement especially from the previous weeks."

While there is a lot for Filpo to be encouraged about with what the Eagles are doing, there are some clear areas to fix up if they want to get on a winning run including sending their opponents to the free-throw line as often and fixing up some other careless mistakes.

"I think it was an even a better game from us than the win against Kalamunda and we did win pretty much every category, but the one that stood out was their 31 free-throw attempts to our 16," he said.

"That's massive and a lot of the other stats are similar so we have to be better with that and we have talked about it.

"We're fouling shooters by reaching in and there are some careless fouls, where if we are going to foul it has to be something where we are fighting for the ball or genuinely making a play, not just sticking your hands in or fouling shooters.

"We fouled a couple of three-point attempts that's just not necessary so there are some mistakes there that we'll have to learn from to stop putting teams on the line to be getting so many free shots."

The Eagles were also without captain Taylor Young against the Wolves which didn’t help matters, but what that did provide was extra opportunity for both Nick Filpo and Matthew Lang in the back court.

Both stepped up well with Filpo playing 33 minutes for nine points, six assists and four rebounds while Lang played 40 minutes for 15 points, 10 boards and two assists.

It was also their defensive intensity to try and make Wolves point guard Ethan Elliott's life as difficult as possible that Filpo liked.

"Whenever situations like that happen you see who can step up and who is prepared to take it on. I thought Nick and Matt did a great job filling those shoes and I felt like defensively they were great," Filpo said.

"That last stop on Elliott that we thought we'd won the game on, I think Matt and Nick both got a piece of it and they played the scout by going under and met Ethan at the rim. It was a great effort by those two.

"Nick as a younger and less experienced guy to step up and take that, he played a lot of minutes and did great. He even had a couple of o-board putbacks and defensively locked his man down.

"There was also another where he and Matt switched in and out, and peeled off each other to get a steal, and Matt came up with it on a tough one in the paint. I was really proud of those two and happy with their game with how they stepped up with Taylor being out."

A constant work in progress for the Eagles this season is trying to incorporate 7'2 big man Ioannis Dimakopoulos and for him to find a way to make a significant contribution.

Him being the last piece of the puzzle to arrive before the start of the season has meant that it's something East Perth will continue to work on and Filpo is confident that both the Eagles and Dimakopoulos himself will all figure out a way to get the best out of each other.

"We are still figuring things out with Ioannis and we knew even in the pre-season before he got here when we were looking at how fast we wanted to play and with our style of play, part of bringing him in was around us thinking we wouldn’t have Jarrad Anastasio at all this year," Filpo said.

"So it was just another big that we felt we needed and we like that Ioannis is a pass first type player, but we always thought it would be a challenge to integrate him and how he fits in. You almost have two styles of play for when he is and when he's not there.

"We are looking to have a slightly different strategy when he has the ball because he's such a big presence and force, and he can shoot it, and I do feel like teams are all over him once he catches it.

"He gets some rough treatment and then he has been in foul in every game up the other end so it's tough for him, and he is dealing with a lot and he's also carrying a little bit of a niggle that he sustained going back to our first practice.

"That means he's not quite moving as well as he usually does and he's playing less minutes, but we still think we'll get there with him and he has to fit in with how we want to play as well."