Eagles' full attention on strong finish

Image credit: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

It's been a tough couple of weeks for the East Perth Eagles but coach Carl Filpo wants his team to shake that off because NBL1 West finals remains within reach and he likes the signs so far that they are focused on a strong finish.

Even though the Eagles have had a disappointing last two weeks with losses by a combined 64 points away to the Goldfields Giants and at home to the Lakeside Lightning, it's not time to give up hope on the season yet with spots in the top eight still up for grabs.

The positive for East Perth is that with a 7-11 record and with the Mandurah Magic losing on Tuesday and the Kalamunda Eastern Suns going on down on Thursday, they are still well within striking distance.

Coming into Saturday night's game at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre, East Perth aren’t too far off the Magic who are 10-10, the Suns who are 9-10 and the Giants who are 9-10, but they do need to get back to winning immediately.

The results have been falling East Perth's way to keep them alive but what the Eagles now need to do is start stringing some wins together again having now lost three straight matches, and five of the past seven.

However, Filpo likes the signs he is seeing from his playing group that they are locked in for a strong finish to the season starting with a must-win clash at home to the Eastern Suns this Saturday night.

"Pretty much every result did go our way at least including Tuesday night with Mandurah losing so that's great for us and really, it leaves it up to us and we just have to win and we can still play finals," Filpo said.

"But we can't afford to approach it any other way than a complete focus on this Saturday. As far as me to the guys goes, we have to win this game on Saturday.

"That's where the focus is and we approach it with a mindset that we go into our practice sessions with a high level of intensity, and focus, and we have to execute.

"We've had that this week so far with a bunch of guys on training track wanting to win every drill, and wanting to make sure we lock in to get this win on Saturday.

"It was a bunch of strong willed, focused mindset guys that were really showing us something, which is great, and now that needs to translate into the game. They trained at a really high intensity and good quality, so the signs have been good."

While the last two weeks have been disappointing for the Eagles with the 36-point loss in Kalgoorlie to the Giants and then a 28-point home defeat against the Lightning, and there's no hiding behind that, Filpo also knows there's no point dwelling on them.

Filpo and his coaching staff will take the lessons from those losses and pass them on to what they want the group to do in response, but really it's all about moving on and refocusing on the last four games starting this Saturday at home to Kalamunda.

"The thing is that the season is still alive so really, you just put those games behind us and they are in the past," Filpo said.

"Anything we can learn from them, we incorporate some teachings into the practice sessions and the adjustments we might make as coaches, but we don’t harp on it or focus on it all.

"We just put them behind us and start focusing on what we can control and that's the games in front of us. Lakeside were great and they did a job on us and so did Kal the week before.

"They had some guys hitting everything and playing great with Duach, Parsons and Shaun Stewart. We were subpar and it showed on the scoreboard and those games happened, but we put it behind us and looking forward now and that's all we can do."

It's been rare so far this season that the Eagles have had their full squad available with former captain Taylor Young getting hurt in the third game while Jonah Antonio has played just nine of 18 games, Sharif Watson 16, Fabian Johnson 11, Lieb Yat 14 and Matthew Lang 15.

The positive now for East Perth is that heading into these last four games over the final three weeks of the regular season is that they have all their squad available with Lang and Johnson back healthy, and Antonio settled back in from the FIBA 3x3 World Cup in Mongolia.

"It's good for a change to have everyone available," Filpo said.

"That game before we played against Willetton was the last time we had all our key players available and it is a positive for us that we have no excuses at least on a personnel front.

"So we had a full squad when we beat Warwick but then we went to Willetton and Matthew hurt himself, and then he was out and we were without Jonah for those four games.

"We knew we'd be without Jonah to play for Australia, but losing Matthew at the same time that left a pretty big hole there and then even Fabian was missing for a few games too.

"So three guards going down in that five-game stretch hurt, but to have them all back now when we need them is really important for us."