Men's Grand Final Preview – Geraldton Buccaneers v Joondalup Wolves

The Geraldton Buccaneers and Joondalup Wolves battled in the last ever SBL Grand Final and now lock horns in Saturday night's NBL1 West decider with vastly different rosters, but the stage is set for a mouth watering match up to decide the 2023 championship.

It was quite the dramatic evening back in the 2019 SBL Grand Final at Bendat Basketball Centre when the Buccaneers ended a 19-year championship drought by handing the Wolfpack what was a fourth successive Grand Final defeat.

That was a fifth straight Grand Final appearance for the Wolves at the time, but now Saturday night's NBL1 West decider will be the first that Joondalup has reached since with Geraldton attempting to win a first championship since that fateful night.

The way that the two teams have got to the Grand Final only sets the stage for what should be a match up to remember too with the Buccaneers dominant at home in front of their amazing crowd in Geraldton winning through with finals wins over the Willetton Tigers and Perth Redbacks.

The Wolfpack have come from sixth position at the end of the regular season to beat the Warwick Senators, Tigers as well and to shock the red hot reigning NBL1 West and National Champion Rockingham Flames in overtime last week to reach Saturday nights' Grand Final.

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The Buccaneers and Wolves did meet in that 2019 Grand Final and on that night, it was Geraldton who prevailed in what was the club's second championship and first since 2000.

The Buccs have remained a championship contender since including reaching last year's Grand Final before losing a tight battle to the Rockingham Flames.

From that 2019 championship team, only coach Dayle Joseph, Grand Final MVP Liam Hunt, then captain Mat Wundenberg and current captain Aaron Ralph remain as part of the Buccaneers team in 2023.

That was a title winning team also featuring Marcus Alipate, Brayden Inger, Colter Lasher, Alex Ducas and Brendan Dinardo.

The turnover has been even more significant at the Wolfpack since that 2019 loss which was the end of the run of five successive Grand Final appearances with Ben Ettridge the coach and games record holder Seb Salinas the captain.

This 2023 team of the Wolfpack now is coached by David Morrell and current captain Jordan Wellsteed is the only remaining player from that 2019 Grand Final side that also featured Earnest Ross, Kevin Davis, Ben Ironmonger, Trian Iliadis, Reece Maxwell, Rob Huntington and Damian Matacz.

There might have been great turnover in the playing rosters of the teams over the past four years, but the rivalry has remained and that included the 2022 preliminary final where the Buccs beat the Wolves to qualify for the Grand Final.

Since then, they met twice in 2023 with the first meeting at HBF Arena Joondalup back on April 15 and that turned out to be a 99-90 victory at home for the Wolfpack.

In that win, Quintin Dove was brilliant for Joondalup with 34 points and 14 rebounds with CJ Turnage adding 17 points, 10 boards and eight assists, Bryan Michaels 15 points, five rebounds and three assists, and former Bucc Mathiang Muo 13 points.

Despite the loss, Sydney Kings NBL championship winning forward Zac Gattorna had 20 points, seven rebounds and three assists for the Buccaneers with Ralph contributing 14 points and three boards, Malik Meunier 13 points, four assists and three rebounds, Hunt 11 points and four boards, and Shaun Stewart 10 points, eight assists and three boards.

The second meeting took place at Active West Stadium where the Buccaneers were unbeaten in all of this season. That match up took place on June 10 and it was another tight affair with Geraldton prevailing 74-67.

In that victory, emerging guard Meunier produced 26 points, five assists and four rebounds for the Buccs with Gattorna contributing 17 points and five boards, Ralph nine points, three rebounds and two assists, and Ryan Blanchett seven points, seven boards and four assists.

Michaels top-scored for the Wolves on that night with 21 points to go with six rebounds and five assists with 7'2 big man Ioannis Dimakopoulos adding 20 points and nine boards, Muo 13 points and five rebounds, and Turnage 10 points and eight boards.

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The stage is now set for a fascinating Grand Final match up starting in the back court with point guards Shaun Stewart up against Bryan Michaels. Then there's also Malik Meunier who will largely come up against former teammate Mathiang Muo.

The Wolves have the size advantage down low with Ioannis Dimakopoulos opposed to Liam Hunt and Mat Wundenberg, but the physicality of the Buccs front court will make things fascinating.

You then have brilliant athletes and all-round talents Zac Gattorna and Quintin Dove coming up against one another with CJ Turnage, Jordan Wellsteed and Christian Jurlina all having big roles to play for the Wolfpack.

Captain Aaron Ralph, Johny Narkle, Fletcher Klasztorny and Ryan Blanchett will play important parts for the Buccaneers as well.

Ralph is no stranger to being part of Grand Finals with the Buccs and even though he wasn’t out on the court last year in the eventual loss to the Rockingham Flames, he was a key part of the team still as an assistant coach while rehabbing his knee.

He was out there for the championship win in 2019 and also the Grand Final loss going back to 2014 so Saturday night will be the third he's played in, and fourth he's been part of but nothing takes away from the excitement of getting to another one.

"I'm feeling good about it all this week. It's a bit surreal actually to get to the Grand Final, I mean I thought we did have a pretty good squad but we had to overcome quite a bit during the season so I didn't know how far we'd be able to go," Ralph said. 

"But we've gelled really well and it's helped that we have had most of the team from last year and have really added Zac in and me even though I was still obviously around last year. It's good to be having another crack at one now and a much better feeling knowing I won't be sitting on the bench this time."

It wasn’t as if Ralph didn’t have full faith in what his Buccs team was capable of, he just knows how much has to go right to get to a Grand Final and missing 2019 Grand Final MVP Liam Hunt for eight games late in the campaign did throw a curve ball.

"We didn’t have Liam for those six weeks and it was in that period where we still went pretty good where I thought that actually, we are doing better than I thought so we could do something special this year," he said. 

"I thought we could go this far, but I guess I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much because a lot of things have to go right. We've all come together now, though, to be playing at our best at the right time."

Dimakopoulos can feel the excitement building ahead of Saturday night's Grand Final where he's set to lock horns with experienced championship winning bigs from the Buccs, Liam Hunt and Mat Wundenberg.

But at the same time, he's trying to treat it like any other week with one game to prepare for while knowing if the Wolves prevail, he's going to have to change things up a little next week for the National Finals which will also be held at HBF Arena Joondalup.

"I'm a bit excited and not really too nervous because it's just a game at the end of the day. I just try to not really thinking about it too much and am trying to do exactly the same as the previous weeks," Dimakopoulos said.

"I'm just going to my weight room, getting treatment, I'm doing my shooting and I haven’t changed anything in my routine for the game. 

"I'm treating it as one more game this week and then if we are able to win and we get all the way to the National Finals where you have to play three games in three days, then I will have to treat it a bit differently about my rest and nutrition.

"But I have played three games in three days before every year in college where it's the same thing to reach the March Madness. I just have to remember how to do it if we get to that point."