Rockingham Flames NBL1 West championship winning captain Ryan Godfrey is still riding on the high as a new father and was always confident his group would be firing at the right time of 2024 – which they now are.
Coming off a 2022 season where Godfrey was captain as Rockingham broke through for a first ever NBL1 West men's championship and backed it up for a National Finals triumph, the Flames were again strong in 2023.
They ended up finishing the regular season in top spot before a heartbreaking preliminary final loss to the Joondalup Wolves and then an equally tough to stomach loss to the Knox Raiders in the decider at the National Finals.
Godfrey feels they learned some tough lessons last year, though, about not peaking too early and while the 2024 season has had its ups and downs mostly on a personnel front, he has no doubt they are now firing at the right time of the year.
After a run of losing six of eight games, Rockingham ended the regular season winning six of the last nine matches before then dominating last Saturday night's elimination final with the 23-point win on the road to the East Perth Eagles.
They do need to keep winning and that sees them take on the Willetton Tigers in a semi-final this Thursday night at Willetton Basketball Stadium with the winner to go on to face the Geraldton Buccaneers in Geraldton on Saturday night in what would be a rematch for the Flames of the 2022 Grand Final.
Firing at the right time of 2024
While the Flames season of 2024 has had its ups and downs with five-game winning run at the start, winning six of nine to finish and going two from eight in between, in hindsight Godfrey feels they might have peaked too early in 2023.
Some of that has been forced this year with two-time MVP Devondrick Walker missing nine games, Jeremy Combs only arriving for the last eight, Gorjok Gak missing four matches and Jono Janssen remaining sidelined.
However, the 327-game veteran captain Godfrey likes how they are clicking right now.
"We draw on some things from last year when we hit our straps early in the season and then we kind of faded a bit late," Godfrey said.
"Even just talking with Petrik and Devondrick in the off-season, the plan is always to be competing at the end of the year and if we go back 2022, that's what we did then.
"We put things in place early, but made sure we stuck to our plan and we probably had to reevaluate where we were sitting halfway through this year. But once we were able to do that and get on the same page, now we're looking to keep going and can be there at the business end of the next couple of weeks."
Sole focus on semi-final with Willetton
While there might be a temptation to look at a trip to Geraldton that would come on Saturday night or even a Grand Final next week at RAC Arena with two wins over the next three days, looking ahead isn’t a trap Godfrey or the Flames are falling into.
They are focused on nothing but trying to beat Willetton this Thursday night having already lost twice to the Tigers by a combined 48 points in 2024.
"We're obviously well aware of the situation we're in of needing to keep on winning, but we just have to remain firmly focused on Thursday night," Godfrey said.
"That's the most important part because if we look past that and think about what's beyond that, we might lose and we're done anyway. It's just about being fully ingrained on what we need to do to get the job done on Thursday and then whatever happens after that, happens.
"We have lost twice already this year to Willetton so we can't look past them but we think we've improved since those two games, and are fully confident going into Thursday that we can continue what we've been doing the last couple of weeks."
Coming up against championship teammate
There's added intrigue for Thursday's match up too with the Flames coming up against a key piece of their 2022 championship winning team Marshall Nelson.
Nelson spent the past two years at Rockingham and the plans were for it to be a third in 2024, but circumstances changed. He ended up with the Tigers and now Godfrey is excited to be on opposing back courts with him on Thursday.
"It's fantastic to be honest and it creates a bit of theatre for the league, and those people who are on the outside looking in and they can create what they want out of it," Godfrey said.
"Obviously Marty is a great guy and did a lot of great things of Rocko, and was a big piece of that championship winning year for us.
"I loved playing with him, but it's great also getting to go up against him again this year and obviously we're on different sides of the fence. It will be good to go into battle against each other on different sides of the ball."
Remaining confident it would come good
Even throughout the struggles for the Flames in the mid part of the 2024 season, Godfrey always had the utmost confidence that things would come good and a lot of that stems from the faith in coach Ryan Petrik he has.
"When you have the core pieces that we have over the last couple of years and the systems that we run, we have complete faith in what we do on the court," Godfrey said.
"Then when you have a head coach like Ryan Petrik at the helm, he literally has a plan for every scenario and that's on court and off court, and anything else that can pop up. I have the utmost faith in him that what we roll out is going to be competitive to beat anyone on any night."
Then Godfrey just knew that when Walker was back healthy, Gak continued to fit in, when Combs settled back in and with the core of himself, Justin Beard and Travis Durnin having held down the fort, that they just had to make sure they made finals to give themselves a chance.
"Even when you lose games throughout the year, we were losing for reasons that we were fully aware of why we were losing and we just needed to address those things," Godfrey added.
"Then when you bring in someone like Combs who joins the fray again along with Devondrick who is the best player in the league and there's definitely no argument about Petrik being the best coach in the league, then you have full faith that you just need to put yourselves thereabouts.
"It was more so about focusing on us to make sure we controlled what we could control, and did most things right and we would be in the conversation.
"We always remained confident throughout the year and there was never any doubt, we just had to make sure we controlled what we could and gave ourselves a chance when it mattered."
Ball in hands more in 2024
What the departure of Nelson and then injury to Walker this season meant for Godfrey in 2024 was that he's had the ball in his hands a lot more than at least the last two years for the Flames.
He's had to take over the main ball handling role and has been put back in charge of running the offence.
He was doing that a lot already just sharing it with Nelson and Walker but this year he has been the primary ball handler, and has been more than happy to do whatever sort of role Petrik wants to put him.
"It's probably different to the last couple of years and I've had a fair bit more responsibility especially on the court to keep the guys organise," Godfrey said.
"Over the last couple of years, Devondrick has played more games and we had Marty to play a part in all that so it has looked a bit different, but in terms of feel it's nothing I'm not used to.
"We've got a few different pieces and it's about learning to work with those new guys and we had Jono playing early on for us as well, but it's just about rolling out and making sure we're all organised, and on the same page. That's what I focus on and it might have looked different, but the feel is the same."
Carrot of playing at RAC Arena
Speaking of not looking too far ahead, Godfrey doesn’t feel that from his own personal perspective that the Grand Final being held at RAC Arena is added motivation just because getting that far would be what he's excited about, not where the game is played.
However, in the bigger picture he can certainly see why it's such a significant step forward for the NBL1 West and Basketball WA in general to be having the double-header at RAC Arena next Saturday.
"It could be a little bit of the age in me, but honestly as a player it wouldn’t matter where the Grand Final is played," Godfrey said.
"From a playing perspective, I would be just as excited to play a Grand Final if it was played down at the local school gym or at RAC Arena, and it would create the same atmosphere in my own head.
"So from a personal perspective, where it's played doesn’t really matter and what matters is if we're able to make it to a Grand Final as a group.
"But if I took my player's hat off and looked at it from a spectator's view or a competition perspective, it's great for the league as a whole because it puts our sport on a bigger stage.
"For one night to have both Grand Finals, it adds that extra theatre for the league and the people invested in it so it's definitely a positive."
First season playing as a dad
When you are 327 games into your NBL1 West career, spent five years at the University of West Georgia, and are 34 years of age, it's not easy to find new experiences in your basketball career.
However, what Godfrey will always remember 2024 for above everything else is that it's the first season of his career that he has played as a father.
He and wife Katelyn welcomed daughter, Paisley, into the world back in December and he is almost lost for words in describing just how lifechanging it has been.
"It has been absolutely incredible being a dad this year so far. She has been an absolute incredible addition to our lives, and my wife Katelyn has been so unreal with it all," he said.
"She is obviously a big drive in me still being able to play basketball and commit that much time and effort to being prepared to play on weekends, and get to trainings.
"If it wasn’t for her and her on-going support, I wouldn’t be in the position I am now to be playing on a team that I am and the role that I play. I wouldn’t be able to do that without her so a lot of credit goes to her."
What Godfrey has found above everything else is that having Paisley in his and Katelyn's life is that he has to stick to his routine more than ever just to make sure he gets everything done in a day he needs to, and gets enough family time back at home too.
"In terms of having a child in our lies, it's unbelievable how much it puts into perspective how important your routine is," Godfrey said.
"It has made me even more disciplined off the court and I'm so much more efficient with the use of my time now, and my time allocation is just at a whole new level.
"To be honest it would have been nice to have at an earlier age because I'm able to fit so much more into my day, and be more present in everything that I need to do.
"Whether it's my workouts in the morning, getting my shots up, what I do at work or being at home and being present. To bring in Paisley and the role that Katelyn plays, it's been incredible. I couldn’t speak highly enough of it."
