Spotlight | Grand Final a reward for Hawks' tough decisions

The Perry Lakes Hawks have beaten the team they will now face in the Grand Final and a team in hot form to book their place in the first ever NBL1 West decider and coach Matt Parsons couldn’t be prouder.

The Hawks won a championship with Parsons at the helm for a second season back in 2018 and any other club might have felt they were still on the right track when they still got to the semi finals a year later.

But losing that semi-final series in two games to the Joondalup Wolves sent warning signals to Parsons that it might be time to change things up in terms of the playing personnel.

Naturally things changed in 2020 thanks to COVID-19 for the team they had in the West Coast Classic and that still reached a Grand Final before losing to the Warwick Senators, but the vision of change has clearly been evident in 2021 in the first ever NBL1 West season.

Parsons made the call to go younger while retaining his gun championship winning veterans Ben Purser, Rob Cassir and Ryan Smith to lead the way. 

He would back in Mitch Clarke, Matt Leary, Cooper Hamilton and Bailey Cole to step up another level while recruiting a new-look front court to top it off, Andrew Ferguson and Lewis Thomas.

With that quality, largely local group at his disposal, Perry Lakes ended up claiming the regular season championship with an 18-4 record before opening up the NBL1 West finals series with an impressive 90-75 qualifying final win over their now Grand Final opponents, the Rockingham Flames.

But then Saturday night's preliminary final against the Perth Redbacks at Bendat Basketball Centre was always going to be a fascinating affair.

The Redbacks impressively beat the Warwick Senators 111-88 last Saturday night and backed it up on Friday to eliminate the third ranked Willetton Tigers with a 92-90 win at Willetton Basketball Stadium.

Perth was impressive in beating Willetton but at the same time, Zac Gattorna, Marshall Nelson and Tevin Jackson all played 37 minutes plus, Louis Timms 32 and Joel Wagner 28.

So finding the energy to take it up to the Hawks who were fresh and also the deepest team in the competition was going to be a test, but the Redbacks sure came out on fire continuing their momentum from the wins over the Senators and Tigers.

The Redbacks had managed to open up a 26-22 lead by quarter-time before a pair of triples to Marshall Nelson and Zac Gattorna saw them up seven early in the second and Hawks coach Matt Parsons went to a quick timeout.

Tevin Jackson then came out and made the lead nine with that advantage growing to 11 soon after with a Louis Timms three-pointer. Mitch Clarke connected with a three just before half-time, though, and Perry Lakes had done well to limit Perth's lead to 50-45.

The game then underwent a remarkable transformation in the second half.

Once Perry Lakes upped the pressure in the second half and started to apply some scoreboard pressure as well by turning an 11-point deficit into a lead of their own, the Redbacks went right away from what had been working so well.

The Hawks took full control with 29 points to 10 in the third quarter, and then ending up cruising to the 92-77 victory to advance to their 10th Grand Final where they will attempt to win a seventh championship.

Runner-up league MVP Andrew Ferguson had a tremendous game for the Hawks with 25 points, nine rebounds and three assists on shooting 10/15 from the field.

Mitch Clarke was tremendous as point for Perry Lakes with 22 points, eight assists and four steals while Lewis Thomas contributed 13 points, 13 rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Co-captain and Perry Lakes games record holder Ben Purser put up 14 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two blocks with Ryan Smith adding 10 points and four boards, and Matt Leary six points.

In all honesty, the Redbacks ran out of gas after two outstanding performances and then throwing everything into the first half against the Hawks.

Tevin Jackson finished with 18 points and nine rebounds, Marshall Nelson 17 points, eight boards and seven assists, Zac Gattorna 16 points and four rebounds, Louis Timms 15 points and seven boards, and Joel Wagner seven points and six assists.

Having now qualified for another Grand Final, his fourth as a head coach in the past seven seasons, Parsons is proud yet fully aware the job isn’t done yet.

"You set the goal to win championships and if you feel like you're in the window, you sit down with your group at the beginning of the year and set your goals," Parsons said.

"To make a Grand Final and having won this prelim over a team who has been absolutely firing on all cylinders is good. We are happy with it but we also know that the job's not done and I guess we just feel like we have to take care of ourselves, and we should be fight teams and weather the storm. 

"I wouldn’t say that the Grand Final is the measuring stick to say whether it's a successful season or not, but I think we've done a really good job with the group that we've got and we've continued to give minutes to young players. 

"And any chance we get to play in big games in front of big crowds I think you start to see what we can do, and I'm pretty happy."

Now that the Hawks are gearing up for another Grand Final appearance, Parsons can't feel anything but pride in the fact that they made some tough calls to change their approach with their playing group after bowing out in the semi finals of 2019.

"The proudest part is the group that we've been able to do this with. COVID threw up so many different scenarios for us and probably like everybody else, we looked into our own talent pool and decided that we wanted to stay relatively local," Parsons said.

"We made sure our recruits were bookended by some WA talent and we were fortunate enough to get the two guys that we did in Lewis and Ferguson. They just bring great value to everything we do, they are good people and have fitted in so well. 

"Then you have Robbie Cassir and Ben Purser who will play with every ounce that they have and they leave everything out on the floor every week. Ryan Smith is a big game player and it doesn’t matter, he doesn’t need the recognition, he just goes and gets the job done. 

"The most pleasing thing for me is that we have that second group of guys like Mitch Clarke, Cooper Hamilton, Bailey Cole and even Matt Leary who I've had a lot to do with both at Perry Lakes and in state programs. To see them come through the same trajectory has been great. 

"I have been fortunate enough to coach 100 games for this great club now and those sort of guys racked up those milestones through this season too and that's the signifier that we are growing, and learning, together.

"We are building this together and then the outcomes take care of themselves, but we are pretty happy with the development of those guys."

Parsons is already a two-time championship winning coach after prevailing with Cockburn in 2016 and Perry Lakes in 2018. He would enter rarefied air on Saturday night if he can win a third, and second at the Hawks, and he actually feels it would be the one he'd treasure the most. 

"I think any championship is a pretty good feat and they are pretty rare, and don’t get taken for granted but it's not about me," Parsons said.

"At the end of 2019 when we finished off in disappointing fashion to be bundled out in straight sets in the semis with an aging list, it kind of forced us to make a few changes. 

"We made some really difficult calls and some of those were to part ways with BC, Shawn and a couple of other older heads like DT and Travis Hayto who were championship winning players for us. 

"They all moved on and it was difficult to reset the button and give these kids an opportunity, but they've taken it and were ready for it. I think if we can get this championship which we will be giving everything to try and do, then I think I'll pretty easily be able to say it would be my favourite one."

While Perry Lakes has been able to eliminate the Flames in the semi finals of 2018, quarter finals of 2019 and then defeat them in this year's qualifying final two weeks ago, Parsons is fully aware of how tough they will be to overcome this Saturday night.

Rockingham has a team featuring seven NBL championships between Greg Hire and Tom Jervis while Flames captain Ryan Godfrey has waited a career for this chance and then they have threats in Justin Beard, Travis Durnin, Atem Bior and Cirkook Makuac Riak.

"I thought that after the qualifying final here a couple of weeks ago that we were the two better teams going around right now," Parsons said. 

"We were lucky enough to break their seven-game winning streak that night, but they have beaten some good teams to get to the Grand Final now. They bounced back to go and do what they needed to do, and they will be ready to come out and try to right the wrongs from their point of view two weeks ago.

"The one thing I do know is that it's a really hard thing to do to win at Lakeside especially with a Grand Final spot at stake so Rockingham must take some serious momentum out of doing that. 

"We know they are an old head team who will make good decisions, and they've got an experienced coach who understands the next level of basketball and he knows how to win championships. 

"He'll make the adjustments that are required based off the last game two weeks ago and it's going to be nil-all again and we'll try to stay one step ahead if we can, and are good enough. Hopefully we can get the win at the end of it."

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 72 lost to Rockingham Flames 88
Perry Lakes Hawks 92 defeated Perth Redbacks 77

FINALS WEEK 3
SATURDAY – GRAND FINAL
Rockingham Flames v Perry Lakes Hawks – Bendat Basketball Centre 7pm