It's third time lucky for Marcus Wong coaching in the NBL1 West to reach a Grand Final but he gives credit to his players at the Rockingham Flames for how they have come together to now earn the chance to play at RAC Arena.
Having built an impressive coaching resume in South Australia both in the Premier League/NBL1 Central and then with the Adelaide Lightning in the WNBL, Wong initially made the move west to coach the Joondalup Wolves the past two seasons.
He did that while also being part of the coaching staff of the Townsville Fire but both seasons finished in similar frustrating fashions for Wong at the Wolfpack just coming up short of the Grand Final.
Then for 2024, he made the move south to coach at Rockingham and while having an impressive roster to work with, that guarantees nothing and he has to commended for the work done to pull everything together.
The Flames started the season on fire winning first 13 consecutive matches by an average of 32 points.
Then after losing two in-a-row, Rockingham won the last five to lock up top spot and now have had to overcome two tough battles at home in the finals against the Perry Lakes Hawks and Lakeside Lightning to reach this Saturday's Grand Final against the defending champion Cockburn Cougars at RAC Arena.
Meaning of reaching Grand Final
While Wong is more focused on being happy for his Rockingham players to now have earned the right to play in Saturday's Grand Final than what it means for himself, he is still rightfully proud and relieved to have got there personally.
"I'm really happy for the girls actually," Wong said.
"We've faced challenges like every team has this season, so for us to get rewarded at the end of the season with a Grand Final appearance, I'm just really happy for the girls.
"It has been an interesting couple of years where at the Wolves we fell over at a similar hurdle in each of the two years so it does feel a little bit like getting the monkey off the back to make it through to one.
"We're happy that we are there and get an opportunity to go out there and compete for at least one more time."
Group of players who wanted to be together
While from the outside it might look as thought Wong has had to put together this Rockingham by recruiting different players from all over the place, the reality is it's a playing group who all wanted to play together and to be coached by him.
That's a big reason why the chemistry has worked and it started with the natural bond Wong already had having coached Robbi Ryan, Nes'eya Parker-Williams and Shani Amos with the Wolfpack.
Emma Gandini, Sophie Doran and Alex Sharp had all played together previously with Willetton as well while Sharp, Doran and Jess Jakens were teammates in a Tigers team that reached the Grand Final last year as well.
All the different connections also included Jakens and Parker-Williams having previously been teammates at the Perth Redbacks, and then even while the likes of Gandini, Amos and Jakens had been long-time rivals, they had all gotten to know each other in one form or another.
Wong has no doubt that the connections pretty much everyone in the team has with everyone else in some way is a big reason why they finished the season at 18-2 and are now in a Grand Final.
"A lot of us have known each other for a while in one way or another now," Wong said.
"Obviously I've got a good relationship with the girls from Wolves and it was a bit of a coming together of a group of us who sort of knew each other, and had respect for each other and they all wanted to play together.
"We were able to provide them with that environment and I do perfectly understand why people would be thinking about the team we've put together, but at the end of the day you do want to win and try to be successful.
"That in turn helps sponsorship opportunities, provides quality games for the crowd and it gives our younger players something to aspire being part of. It can be a fine balance but all these girls wanted to be together and we all kind of know each other so it has been a really enjoyable season from that point of view for all of us."
Blocking out the critics from beyond the club
While it was somewhat a surprise that Wong wasn’t one of the final nominees for Coach of the Year given he had just taken a team to finish the regular season a game clear in top spot, it's not something he has given an ounce of thought to.
And nor is he worried about any individual accolades for his players because ultimately all that matters is trying to win games of basketball and end up with the championship come Saturday night.
What he doesn’t like is any critics that try to misrepresent the way the Flames are operating and while they have brought in some star talent from the outside this season, the big picture is always about doing what's right for basketball in Rockingham.
"Firstly the main thing is that all the coaches that got nominated were well deserving and had really good years so we've spoken about it as a team, to me the individual awards are not something that we're worried about," Wong said.
"It was more the chatter about our team and the girls that has been out there this year, and our junior players that we do have.
"We've spoken about it as a group and we just make sure we stay in our bubble, and try to block out that external noise, but there are a lot of things being said that's not factually correct.
"No one knows what we're doing internally to try and develop some of our Rockingham juniors, and bring them forward. It's a really important thing to us although a lot of people from the outside don't see that.
"So it can be hard because we have a group where we didn’t have the number of junior players where we could put a team on the court at the start."
While it looks as though Wong was part of bringing in a total new team at Rockingham for this season, the reality is they needed to recruit heavily because the majority of non-Flames local players had departed at the end of 2023 anyway.
What Wong knows is that everyone involved at Rockingham can be comfortable knowing they have nothing but the best interests of the association in mind.
"We had to bring in people to cover those who had left and to make it really clear, we didn’t remove any Rockingham juniors to bring anyone in at all," he said.
"That is a balance as well and we think the development of juniors is getting to learn off these experienced players as well so they can take over from them down the track.
"We've definitely got programs that we've put in place this year to help our younger NBL1 players and we don't feel like we have to justify that to all the critics out there, but it's been disappointing some of the talk and it's disrespectful to our girls and players more than anything.
"I feel like people are definitely talking without all the facts, but that's any sporting community and we just have to deal with that."
Having to fight hard to advance
After Rockingham finished the regular season in first place having won 18 of 20 matches, they earned the rights to play at home in the finals series but they were pushed to the brink by both the Perry Lakes Hawks and Lakeside Lightning.
After Perry Lakes put in a strong showing in the qualifying final, Lakeside threw the gauntlet right down to Rockingham last Saturday in the preliminary final, but Wong was pleased to advance.
"All credit to Lakeside, they really had a good finals series and they can probably count themselves a little bit unlucky not to be playing in the Grand Final as well," Wong said.
"But I thought our girls dug deep and fought it out really well. We might not have played our best basketball but our fighting spirit I think is what got us through.
"We've been working on our culture and all that stuff, and that's the sort of thing that shows up in those moments. We came up big at the right time and now we're playing in a Grand Final."
Battle hardened for Grand Final
Rockingham came up with some massive steals late in that preliminary final with the full court pressure which helped them get out of jail against the Lightning on the back of the defensive focus they have had.
Wong is also hoping that the two tough finals matches will hold them in good stead for the Grand Final against the Cougars after finishing the regular season with wins over the East Perth Eagles and South West Slammers by a combined 138 points.
"We went in with the goal this season to try and be the best defensive team in the competition, and I think we've achieved that based on points given up for the year at least. Those steals can be lucky in those moments as well and you take the opportunities you get, and thankfully we had some players step up at the right time.
"We had two fairly easy games to finish the season and unfortunately the timing of that was Sharpy just getting back and she probably didn’t get the tough games under her belt that we would have liked coming back from injury," Wong said.
"And we were still trying to gel our team together and it's sort of the first time Alex and Robbi had played together in tough situations with us so there's those things that we've been trying to manage and deal with as well.
"But what we've learnt over the last couple of weeks in these tight situations helps us figure out what to do at the right moments, and hopefully that holds us in good stead if it comes down to that in the final."
Home crowd support creating great environment
Playing both finals at Mike Barnett Sports Complex was a big boost for the Flames as well and the atmosphere created especially in last Saturday's preliminary final was outstanding with both sides of the grandstand jam packed.
For Wong, the support the Flames have received at home games late in the season only shows that they are connecting well with the community in Rockingham.
"Our home crowds over the last month of the season were amazing and full credit to the club, to the supporters and to the members," Wong said.
"They came out and really created a great atmosphere for us to play in and there's no doubt they helped us get over the line last weekend.
"That's been great and our girls have also been going out to WABL games and trainings, and interacting with the juniors so we're trying to create that club atmosphere and feel as well.
"I think it's paid off and the club has done a lot of ground work in trying to get people out to games, and that's really starting to pay off. We are getting a lot of good, positive feedback from the people that do come out to the games and the kids are loving it, and interacting with the girls.
"People have seemed to really enjoy watching us play and for the negative comments that are happening outside, we're getting a lot of positive feedback from our own members, which is nice."
