The Perth Redbacks have already ended the seasons of the Warwick Senators and Willetton Tigers, and if they can do the same to the Perry Lakes Hawks a Grand Final berth is their reward, but coach CJ Jackson knows they are a whole different challenge.
The Redbacks always appeared to have the talent to be a force this NBL1 West season on the back of the starting five they had assembled with captain Joel Wagner joined by Marshall Nelson, Zac Gattorna, Tevin Jackson and Louis Timms.
Rarely did they have all five together throughout the regular season and when they did, there were times individual pursuits were being put above the team goals and that’s why the Redbacks never quite found the consistency they hoped and came into the finals in seventh position.
However, how things have now changed over the past two weeks and it’s quite possible the best two performances in 2021 that the Redbacks have delivered have been last Saturday against the Warwick Senators and then Friday night against the Willetton Tigers.
The end results have been a 111-88 elimination final win over the Senators and 92-90 semi-final win against the Tigers, and there’s no question the Redbacks have been responsible for Warwick and Willetton both being eliminated earlier than they were expecting this NBL1 West season.
Redbacks coach CJ Jackson has unlocked something in his playing group that wasn’t quite there during the regular season, and the chemistry they are now playing with has seen them make the most of the enormous natural talent they have.
The other thing they have unlocked that works for this group is moving the ball, individuals not trying to do too much on their own, better shot selection and above all else, using their athleticism to attack the basket where they are proving unstoppable.
That has all been behind super impressive wins over the Senators and Tigers to see the Redbacks advance to this Saturday night’s preliminary final against the Perry Lakes Hawks at Bendat Basketball Centre.
Before Jackson returned to the Redbacks as head coach in 2020 marking his comeback to the club he originally came down under to join in 1990 as an import player, he had called Perry Lakes home in various roles for a lot of the previous decade.
That means he has worked closely with a lot of the Hawks players he will now coach against in the preliminary final on Friday night, but there’s no hiding from the fact there has been quite a rivalry developed between the Redbacks and Hawks too.
Since Jackson has been back at the Redbacks, the Hawks have dominated proceedings between the two clubs and now Perry Lakes come into Saturday night’s preliminary final deservedly warm favourites.
Two-time championship winning coach Matt Parsons took his team to the regular season championship, they beat the Rockingham Flames in last week’s qualifying final and they have done it largely on a group of local talents topped up with Andrew Ferguson and Lewis Thomas in 2021.
Jackson knows that while his Redbacks have harnessed their physical gifts as individual players to their full potential over the last week in the wins over the Senators and Tigers impressively, it is going to take an even better and more complete performance if they hope to beat the Hawks.
The reward will be Jackson getting a team to a Grand Final for the first time in his life as a head coach and he can’t wait for the challenge of taking on Perry Lakes with so much at stake.
“There is a lot of things I love about that club and the players at Perry Lakes, but we took two beatings from them during the season and we have to make a stance after those to get to where we need to get to,” Jackson said.
“If we play desperate enough and execute, and do the things that we are capable of doing and not allowing them to go on serious runs on us, then I think we’ll give ourselves a chance.
“You kind of would rather play them in a Grand Final instead of at this stage and that would be the dream match up that both clubs have been anticipating, and I just feel like we might be drawing the right cards at the right time.
“Now I know we had a lot of guys who played a lot of minutes to win this game, but we need to come out with a different mindset than what we had last time against Perry Lakes. We dropped our heads when they started to hit a few shots and we can’t do that again.
“I watched Coaches Clipboard today and I saw Doc Rivers talking about how champions always step forward even while taking punches. That’s the thing we need to do as a team is if we want to get to where we want to get to, we’ve got to take some hits and have to come forward even more. That’s what we are going to try and to do.”
Going back to Friday night’s win over the Tigers at Willetton Basketball Stadium in the semi-final, Jackson couldn’t have been more proud to see the Redbacks maintain their performance from last week against the Senators even though it was a hell of a battle against Willetton.
A big crowd turned out and provided a brilliant atmosphere which saw Tevin Jackson set the tone for the Redbacks with Louis Timms dominant inside as they opened up a double-figure lead midway through the fourth quarter.
However, the Tigers refused to throw in the towel even though down the stretch their two championship winning guns Michael Vigor and Damien Scott would foul out.
It would be Connor Mincherton who would be the spark to give the Tigers a sniff down the stretch showing why he is one of the best young talents in the country and why he belongs on an NBL roster somewhere.
Almost single-handedly he got the Tigers back within two points, but ultimately Tevin Jackson hit the clinching free-throws as part of his 22 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
Louis Timms was just an unstoppable force for the Redbacks with 36 points and 21 rebounds while showing good control of his shot selection going at 16/23 from the field and 3/6 from beyond the arc.
Zac Gattorna appears on the brink of signing his first deal at an NBL club and showed why with his 19 points and five assists with Marshall Nelson adding nine points, 11 rebounds and four assists, and Joel Wagner four points and four assists.
Willetton will be disappointed to see its season end, but the Tigers have an enormous amount to be proud of with the way they were so good in 2021 largely on the back of young, local products and without an import.
Damien Scott ended the night with 27 points, six rebounds and three assists with Michael Vigor putting up 24 points, 11 rebounds and three assists.
Connor Mincherton finished with 17 points and four rebounds, Hunter Clarke 10 and eight boards, and Roosevelt Williams four points, five rebounds and five assists.
Coach Jackson was proud of his team for prevailing in such a high quality contest with so much at stake.
“I think it probably started last week in our game against Senators where we just executed on all cylinders and that kind of set us up for this game as well,” Jackson said.
“We showed that we need to play with a little bit of desperation in order to get them up and firing because we knew that if we lose we go home. It’s more like an NCAA type of tournament right now and I’m trying to get them up for it, and they are doing a good job getting themselves up for it too.
“I thought Tevin was really important and I thought we maybe should have gone to him a little bit more when the opportunity was there for him to take it over a little bit. ‘
“But being the unselfish player that he is, he allows us to run sets and he wants to get Marshall involved, he wants to get Zac involved, he wants to get Louis involved and he’s second on the team in assists behind Wags.
“When you are an all-round player you can’t discount what his values are to the club and he also did a really good defensive job on Scotty after quarter-time and we probably should have gone to that earlier.”
Not only was Friday night a big night for the Redbacks with the men’s team winning to stay alive, but at the same time the women’s team beat the Cockburn Cougars at Belmont Oasis to advance to the preliminary final against the Willetton Tigers.
Jackson couldn’t be more proud to see the Redbacks as the only club with two teams left in the final four of both competitions as they attempt to replicate what they achieved by reaching the Grand Finals on both sides when he was a player in 1990.
“The boys were just elated once they heard that the girls had won too,” Jackson said.
“That’s a big thing for the club because going back to 1990 when I first came here, we both went to the Grand Final. For us to both be playing off for a Grand Final spot and to give ourselves that chance I think is a major, major thing for our club.”
NBL1 WEST MEN’S DIVISION 2021
FINALS WEEK 1
FRIDAY – QUALIFYING FINAL
Lakeside Lightning 95 defeated Willetton Tigers 92
FRIDAY – ELIMINATION FINAL
Mandurah Magic 63 defeated Cockburn Cougars 62
SATURDAY – ELIMINATION FINAL
Warwick Senators 88 lost to Perth Redbacks 111
SATURDAY – QUALIFYING FINAL
Perry Lakes Hawks 90 defeated Rockingham Flames 75
FINALS WEEK 2
FRIDAY – SEMI FINALS
Rockingham Flames 99 defeated Mandurah Magic 76
Willetton Tigers 90 lost to Perth Redbacks 92
SATURDAY – PRELIMINARY FINALS
Lakeside Lightning v Rockingham Flames – Lakeside Recreation Centre 7pm
Perry Lakes Hawks v Perth Redbacks – Bendat Basketball Centre 7pm
FINALS WEEK 3
SATURDAY – GRAND FINAL
Lightning/Flames v Hawks/Redbacks – Bendat Basketball Centre 7pm