No need for added motivation for unbeaten Cougars

Image credit: Michael Farnell (Sports Imagery)

The Cockburn Cougars can draw on last year's NBL1 West Grand Final at RAC Arena experience but coach Russell Hann is just focusing on playing their way and not the undefeated streak, redemption or any extra motivators.

Hann has moved up from an assistant coach role to being the head coach at the Cougars in 2025 with championship winner Tyrone Thwaites moving into a role at Basketball WA, and it's been as smooth a transition as you'll get.

Cockburn had already played in the last two Grand Finals including a maiden championship breakthrough in 2023, but with a stable group they have had a dominant 2025 season winning all 22 games ahead of Saturday's decider at RAC Arena against the Warwick Senators.

The Cougars have averaged scoring 98.0 points in this 22 wins with an average winning margin of 31.6 points with only three of the 22 matches being decided by single figures.

Cockburn had to do it tough in the qualifying final before beating the defending champion Rockingham Flames by two points and then they were dominant in the preliminary final beating the shorthanded Perry Lakes Hawks by 27 points also at Wally Hagan Stadium.

You can't fault anything the Cougars have done all season and in the finals, and now in preparation for the Grand Final, and coach Hann is remaining lowkey, but is starting to feel the excitement for Saturday building.

"It's definitely starting to get exciting now. We've kinda got the admin stuff out of the way earlier in the week and now we can try to just focus in on the game," Hann said.

Time restrictions don’t really give you too much time to think about getting excited, but now that we've had a training session, we did some team building and have had a couple of meetings as a coaching group, we're getting to the point we need to be in terms of our preparation.

"It's time now to sit back and make sure you enjoy the moment and try to make it as memorable as you can."

Having played at RAC Arena before

The Cougars were part of the first ever NBL1 West Grand Final at RAC Arena last year and every player aside from Sarah Mortensen and Ruby Porter are back again for the repeat appearance in 2025.

It's not something you can measure in terms of what sort of a help it can be up against a Senators team where the vast majority of the Senators players will be experiencing playing at RAC Arena for the first time.

That does provide a degree of comfort for Hann heading into the Grand Final at least in terms of knowing what to expect on all fronts.

"I don’t know, but I assume that having the experience of being there has to help and understanding what it looks like and all of that," Hann said.

"Having had that chance to work out what time to get there, what the changerooms are like, where to go to for different things and what shootaround looks like, and all of that it can only be beneficial having done it before.

"Walking through it the other day was great to do again to remind yourself of what that atmosphere is going to be like, and the only one on our team who hasn’t really experienced it is Ruby.

"Sarah didn’t either because we played that Grand Final at Bendat but she's played in some big arenas in her career and Ruby is a pretty seasoned athlete even given her age already so we think they will adapt just fine."

Cougars focusing on what matters

All that Hann wants his Cougars coaching staff, players and everyone else involved in the team to worry about this week is not letting any of the outside noise creep in.

Hann is happy for people on the outside of the Cougar Family to talk about their undefeated streak in 2025, to talk about last year's Grand Final or anything else that they might like to bring up, but he doesn’t want any outside noise sipping into the inner sanctum.

"A few things we've spoken about as a group is that one of the benefits we have is that we've all been there," Hann said.

"This group has been together for a while now and we've experienced the high of that week and the low of it over the past two years so we know what both feel like.

"We've also played at RAC before so we know what that feels like as well. All the other stuff is just the outside noise that we don’t need to worry about whether it's being undefeated or whatever it is.

"We don't focus on any of those things because we are a week by week team, and we really do focus on the job ahead. And the girls do a great job of that so we'll just focus in on the game and see what happens."

Last year won't ever be mentioned

Coming off winning a first ever women's championship in 2023, the Cougars got to the Grand Final again in 2024 to be part of it for the first time at RAC Arena and did have the better of the contest for a lot of the night against the Flames.

However, Rockingham went on a championship clinching run in the fourth quarter but whether or not that has left a burning drive inside anyone at the Cougars for 2025, it's not something that outwardly has been brought up, and it won't be.

"It's not something we've used as a motivating factor and I don’t need to with this group," Hann said.

"I haven’t heard it get mentioned and I haven’t brought it up once, and I'm really proud of the fact that we don’t need to go and use that as a motivating factor.

"It's about just moving on and making sure that everybody plays our way. That's been a big focus this year to just take care of ourselves and play our way, and hopefully the results take care of themselves."

Preparing for Senators

One thing Hann knows about the Senators who the Cougars will play against in the Grand Final on Saturday is that they will be a vastly different outfit than the one that Cockburn beat by 45 points in the last game of the regular season.

Hann will have to wait like the rest of us outside the inner sanctum of the Senators to find out if any of Emma Gandini, Robbi Ryan or Chloe Forster will try playing in the Grand Final, and he will also have to wait and see if Warwick and coach Brad Robbins throw anything different at them.

But from a Cougars point of view, Hann sees no reason to look to change too much given how well everything has worked so far in 2025.

"It's hard to know exactly what to expect because you don't know what's going on within their group, but I've run through some different scenarios with my assistants," Hann said.

"We feel like there's a certain way we like to play and way that they like to play, and there'll probably be some changeups coming into a Grand Final.

"But at the end of the day, you play the season full of principles and the way you want to play with the goal of having that type of play to fall back on.

"But it's all about just making sure you're ready for anything that might be thrown your way or any obstacles you have to overcome, but we're pretty comfortable with where we're at and we'll wait to see what Warwick throw up at us."

Sharing the journey with family

Hann also can't be more thankful to wife Lisa and the couple's three daughters for their understanding in allowing him to take on the head coach role while still also juggling a full-time job.

That's severely impacted the time he has been able to spend with them throughout the season, but he has noted their excitement for the Grand Final and is looking forward to sharing Saturday with them all.

"The questions at home have certainly gone up this week I can guarantee you that," Hann said.

"There hasn’t been this much excitement during the year as there is this week, but my family has been extremely supportive.

"The time and effort that goes into this transition from an assistant to a head coach is on another level but the support and the love I've got even though they don’t get to see their dad or husband as much as they might like is something that I really appreciate."