Men's Grand Final Preview: Perry Lakes Hawks v Rockingham Flames

When: 7.00pm (AWST), Saturday September 4

Where: Bendat Basketball Centre, Perth 

Broadcast: Kayo Freebies, www.nbl1.com.au

The last time
Perry Lakes 90 (Ferguson 22, Clarke 19, Smith 13) d Rockingham 75 (Jervis 17, Godfrey 17, Bior 14) – Qualifying Final, Bendat Basketball Centre

The Perry Lakes Hawks and Rockingham Flames have developed quite the rivalry in recent years and with a preliminary final spot at stake, that continued to open the NBL1 West finals series two weeks ago.

The Hawks and Flames have met in some heated and tantalising match ups in recent years including a tense and dramatic quarter-final series in 2019, and a hell of a three-game semi-final battle in 2018 before Perry Lakes went on to win the championship.

However, the Hawks had been the most consistent and deepest team right throughout the regular season in the NBL1 West competition and that came to the fore throughout the second half. The Hawks put together a dominant third quarter holding the Flames to just the 11 points while scoring 22 themselves after scores were level at half-time.

That set up the eventual 90-75 win but despite the loss, Rockingham was remarkably dominant on the boards with 53 rebounds to 34 including 19 to seven at the offensive end. However, 23 turnovers to 11 somewhat cancelled that out while Perry Lakes also shot 45.2 per cent from the field and 38.9 from deep opposed to 36.1 and 32.1 from Rockingham.

MVP runner-up Andrew Ferguson was terrific again for Perry Lakes with 22 points and eight rebounds with point guard Mitch Clarke delivering 19 points, three rebounds and two assists. Ryan Smith also had 13 points and two assists, Ben Purser 10 points, six assists, five rebounds and five steals, Rob Cassir nine points, five steals, four assists and three boards, Cooper Hamilton seven points and Lewis Thomas seven points and 10 rebounds..

Tom Jervis fought hard inside in his match up with Ferguson for Rockingham to end the night with 17 points, 15 rebounds and two blocked shots while Ryan Godfrey contributed 17 points, five rebounds and three assists on hitting 4/7 from three-point range. Atem Bior added 14 points, six rebounds and three assists for the Flames, Cirkook Makuac Riak nine points and five rebounds, Brendan Redhead six points and Justin Beard six points, four rebounds and three assists.

 

How they got here

On the back of winning the 2018 SBL championship, reaching the semi finals of 2019 and then the Grand Final of the West Coast Classic in 2020, the Perry Lakes Hawks proved the dominant team throughout the inaugural NBL1 West season.

One of the four losses Perry Lakes did suffer during the season was at Bendat Basketball Centre against the Rockingham Flames back on May 21. But the Hawks went on to win 15 of their last 18 games of the regular season to finish on top spot at 18-4.

That saw them host the Flames in that qualifying final match up that they won 90-75 before taking on the Perth Redbacks in this past Saturday night's preliminary Final.

Perry Lakes did fall down by 11 points during the second quarter but would go on to dominate the third term and open up their own double-figure advantage before eventually winning 92-77 to book in a place in the Grand Final.

The Rockingham Flames have been banging on the door in recent years to breakthrough to reach the first Grand Final in the history of the men's competition, and they have finally got there.

They went ever so close in a cracking 2018 semi-final battle with the Perry Lakes Hawks with a team consisting of Greg Hire, Luke Travers and Kevin White under the coaching of Brad Samuelson.

Ryan Petrik took over as coach in 2019 after a brilliant two-time championship winning run of Rockingham's women's team and it ended in another tense, tight and heartbreaking playoff loss to the Hawks once again.

The Flames never quite going in last year's West Coast Classic but put together an overall strong NBL1 West season in 2021 to end up at 15-6 and in fourth position. They did lose two of their first four games and had a three-game losing run mid-season, but then won seven straight to end the season with plenty of momentum and confidence.

Rockingham then lost to Perry Lakes by 15 points in that qualifying final but bounced back this past Friday night to deliver a hammering to the undermanned Mandurah Magic 99-76 in the semi-final. That saw them advance to a preliminary final battle with the Lakeside Lightning. Despite being on the road against a team featuring Jarrad Prue, Kyle Armour, Jack Isenbarger and Jay Bowie, the Flames were too strong winning 88-72 to make history and get to a first ever Grand Final.

 

Championship history

The Perry Lakes Hawks were the most successful club throughout the men's SBL winning championships in 1994, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2018 while also reaching Grand Finals in 2005, 2009 and 2011. That gives them six championships from nine Grand Final appearances.

In terms of this current team of 2021, Ben Purser and Rob Cassir were still co-captains of that 2018 title winning team with Ryan Smith, Mitch Clarke, Bailey Cole, Cooper Hamilton and AJ Nobensi also part of that team who will be out there this Saturday night against the Wolves.

Coach Matt Parsons is certainly no stranger to championships either. He took the Cockburn Cougars to the SBL crown in 2016 and then in his second season with the Perry Lakes Hawks, did the same in 2018 with both wins coming against the favoured Joondalup Wolves.

Parsons now has the chance to win a third championship on Saturday night, and a second at Perry Lakes.

The Rockingham Flames are playing in their first ever men's Grand Final whether it has been the SBL, West Coast Classic or now the NBL1 West competition.

The club might be being represented in a Grand Final in the men's competition, but you can hardly accuse the team of being inexperienced and that starts with coach Ryan Petrik who led the Flames women to two championships and is the current Perth Lynx WNBL coach.

Then you have Greg Hire who is a four-time NBL championship winner at the Perth Wildcats while also winning an SBL title at the Joondalup Wolves in 2011 where he was named Grand Final MVP. There's also Tom Jervis who won three NBL titles at the Wildcats and an SBL crown at East Perth in 2014.

Ryan Godfrey, Justin Beard, Travis Durnin, Callum Beard and Jake Amos might not have won a championship, but they have played 271, 177, 119, 80 and 70 games respectively in the competition.

 

The stats

- If you take out the qualifying final loss two weeks ago to Perry Lakes and Rockingham has been in ominous form since the arrival of Tom Jervis. They have won those nine other games with an average winning margin of 19.7 points

- The Flames improved from an 8-6 record before Tom Jervis settled in after the NBL season to closing the regular season at 15-6 in fourth position

- Rockingham ended up averaging 90.0 points a game during the season and 77.5 points against, but in wins they would put up 92.9 points and concede just 71.6. Meanwhile, in losses they would score only 81.6 points and give up 92.4 per game

- Perry Lakes, meanwhile, won 12 of the first 14 games of the season on the way to ending up at 18-4 to claim the regular season championship. They would average scoring 95.8 points a game while conceding 73.6. In wins, the Hawks scored 99.1 points and gave up 71.9. In the four losses, they scored only 76.8 points and conceded 83.5 per game

 

The key men

Andrew Ferguson – There's no question he would have learned a lot and developed accordingly at Perth Wildcats training by being alongside, and battling against Tom Jervis, and now the MVP runner-up gets to show just how far he's come with a championship on the line. The Lakeside product joined Perry Lakes in 2021 and delivered an outstanding season averaging 15.6 points, 10.3 rebounds a game while shooting at 53.3 per cent from the field and 79.1 per cent from the foul line. He's a strong inside force for the Hawks to play off, but going up against an experienced warrior like Jervis is another thing. He did well in the qualifying final, though, with 22 points and eight rebounds including knocking down 5/9 from downtown as he dragged Jervis out to defend him.
 
Tom Jervis – He has proven he can be a dominant force on a championship team back in 2014 at the East Perth Eagles and since then, he has put together a terrific NBL career winning three championships at the Perth Wildcats while playing well also with the Brisbane Bullets. It was a surprise return from retirement to the NBL in 2021 but he enjoyed that chance, and on the back of it joined the Flames and provided them that being force inside. He has made quite the impact with the team rolling to the Grand Final largely thanks to the different look he gives them, and should he play his role on the Grand Final stage, another championship could very much be coming his way.

 

The quotes
Perry Lakes Hawks coach Matt Parsons is looking to become a three-time championship winning coach on Saturday night, and is proud of his team to reach another Grand Final.

"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. To make a Grand Final and having won this prelim over a team who has been absolutely firing on all cylinders is good," Parsons said.

"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."

For Rockingham to have reached the Grand Final by winning at Lakeside says to Parsons that they are going to be quite the challenge for the Hawks now in the Grand Final.

"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," Parsons said. 

"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.

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

This would be a third championship as a head coach for Parsons if Perry Lakes prevail, but he feels it would be the one he ends treasuring the most should it eventuate.

"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. 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," Parsons said.

"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."

Rockingham Flames superstar veteran Greg Hire was lured to leave the Joondalup Wolves where he had created quite a legacy either side of his NBL career at the Perth Wildcats tasked with helping to turn around the club's culture.

He has certainly played a big part in the Flames having been knocking on the door of success in 2018 and 2019, but now he is proud to have played a role in them making history by reaching the Grand Final and seeing what it means to so many people associated with basketball in Rockingham.

"A few years ago when I came down to Rockingham, it was on the back of having a pretty poor Wildcats season and my motivation was to get the ball back in my hands, and to get the love back into playing basketball, which can be done pretty easily when you're playing well," Hire said.

"The other side of it was to try and make an impact at Rockingham and helping to build their culture. They had some good teams over the years, but have never reached a Grand Final until now and it was all about trying to change the attitude and a lot of the nuances of how they saw themselves. 

"It was about having expectations of winning by doing what you are supposed to do rather then being surprised when you win. It has been a refreshing journey overall and my role has changed a little bit this year, but it's nice knowing that I've been part of this three-year journey with these guys to get to a Grand Final. 

"It's such an amazing group of guys and then I think of past legends of Rockingham like Travis Moore, Blocker, Carlin Hughes, Jarryd Griffin and so many others and you know what a championship would mean to them all. To walk out after a game and see some of them, including Stephen Watson, emotional about us getting to a Grand Final made it a proud moment. 

"Obviously winning championships for the Wildcats is the peak, but to try and help these guys at Rockingham win a championship will be something that's very special for me."

When Hire played such a key role on helping the Wolfpack to the 2011 championship to break a drought for the club, it was a breakthrough triumph that meant the world to so many people who had waited so long. He is seeing a lot of similarities in this Rockingham run into the Grand Final of 2021 including that both games just happen to be against the Perry Lakes Hawks.

"There are so many synergies to that 2011 championship that you can't manage to ignore. I thanked 'Boof' on Sunday morning for being so welcoming to me and allowing me to part of this journey because he is Rockingham really," Hire said.

"He has embraced me coming into the club and he has been really selfless because he wants to win a championship, but I want him to know we're doing a lot of this for him. That's when I realised just how much this means and probably more than I expected. But then you start hearing from some of the other older players who tell you just how much it means and it's been really cool to be part of. 

"That's the beauty of the SBL and NBL1 that you have those stalwarts that might not have got paid for the majority of their careers, and they are tradies or work in other fields and have families, and winning a championship means everything to them. To now make a championships after all these years is amazing and our crowd is so passionate. 

"I remember back to when we got that monkey off the back at Wolves to win that championship in 2011, it was against Perry Lakes too and there's always a good rivalry there. 

"Their crowd does give it to me and even two weeks ago there was some words spoken that I didn’t really appreciate so hopefully I can get the last word on Saturday, and I might share what those words were. I told my wife all I wanted to do was to get to a Grand Final and I'll be pretty happy with everything that we've been able to achieve."