Nothing but excitement for Davis to face Senators

Caleb Davis left with no bad blood with the Warwick Senators, it was just time to rejoin CJ Turnage but he is now feeling nothing but excitement ahead of leading Joondalup Wolves into battle against his old team.

Davis grew up playing at the Warwick Senators where the Wolves were always their great rivals no matter the level he was playing at, and then when it was time to go home, Davis was always going to come back to the Senators.

It was a terrific six-year journey back with his home club too including being a key part in the 2020 West Coast Classic championship win, and playing some outstanding basketball including being named to the All-NBL1 West First Team in 2022.

Davis played 144 games in total at the Senators starting back in 2013 before he left for college, but since returning in 2018, he has put up 18.1 points and 6.8 rebounds while shooting 43.2 per cent from the floor and 38.0 per cent from deep.

At 6'9 and with those shooting and scoring numbers not to mention his playmaking ability, he is quite the weapon but by the end of 2023, he was getting the itch to make a fresh start.

With a new coach, new captain and a significant turnover at the Senators, Davis felt the time was right to make the move and the obvious option became to rejoin one of his best friends, and college teammate at Saginaw Valley State University, CJ Turnage with Warwick's great local rivals, the Joondalup Wolves.

Playing against Warwick for first time

Playing against the Senators for the first time in Wolves colours was always going to be a big moment for Davis, and fellow teammate Ethan Elliott, and this Friday night at HBF Arena is an occasion he can't wait for.

Playing against his championship winning captain at the Senators is something Davis is especially looking forward to although the rivalry is certain of a friendly nature.

"It is nothing but excitement from me thinking about it. I had this game circled from the very first day I signed with the Wolves and I know Ethan was the same way as well. We've been really looking forward to this Friday night," Davis said.

"It's going to be fun more than anything. It'll get those competitive juices flowing and me and Cody are very similar in that sort of way.

"There's obviously no beef there or anything, but once the game starts you get that competitive energy and we'll both leave it out on the court. It's certainly going to be a fun night on Friday and we're looking forward it."

Battling against long-time teammates

One thing Davis didn’t envision doing was having to play against Ellis. Both grew up playing at Warwick and Davis has always looked up to Ellis, and enjoyed everything about playing alongside him and developing that friendship off the court.

Ellis initially thought he was retiring at the end of 2023 and that did play a part in Davis deciding it was time to move on from the Senators, but now he is looking forward to challenge of going out there to battle him where they will spend significant time matched up with one another.

"It will be really strange playing against Cody and Jay especially, and Cody is definitely the one," Davis said.

"We both took similar paths growing up and we were Warwick coming through the ranks and obviously he was four or five years older, but in terms of our pathway and going through the ranks, it was very similar for us both.

"So when we both ended up back together at Warwick, we sort of created a friendship there very quickly and went from there.

"We've obviously been teammates ever since until this year so it's going to be different coming up against him, but we've had heaps of chats back and forth about it, and we both can't wait for it. It'll get that competitive juices flowing for sure."

The natural Battle of Joondalup rivalry

Davis has spent his life being part of the rivalry between Warwick and Joondalup either side of his time in college and then stint at the Adelaide 36ers and in South Australia, but until this Friday night, it's always been in Senators colours.

He'll be in green for the Wolfpack against Warwick for the first time this Friday night at Joondalup but he is fully aware of how deep the rivalry goes given the proximity of both clubs, and he's looking forward to the new experience.

"The Wolves have been a massive rival forever of Warwick, even going back to WABL days when I was growing up," Davis said.

"We're talking even under-12s here and whenever you played Joondalup this was a rivalry game, and these were the guys we had to get after. It's funny because there's a few guys I play with now who I did play against back in those days for Joondalup like Jordy Wellsteed.

"Me and him have had so many battles over the year and there's just that rivalry there because we're so close in location. There's always been that rivalry between Warwick and Joondalup, and it's not just NBL1 it goes down through all levels.

"It's funny because the last couple of years I've played in these rivalry games and been going against one of my best mates, CJ, and now we get to play together but I'll be going against one of my other good mates, Cody.

"It's just completely on the other side of the fence so it's funny to get to see both sides."

CJ just about in MVP level form

A significant factor in Davis joining the Wolves was to have the chance to play alongside Turnage once more.

They formed a terrific bond on-court in their college days with the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals before they both also spent time together in South Australia where Turnage was a two-time Premier League (now NBL1 Central) MVP across his three-year stint.

Not only did they have a great natural chemistry, but are close friends and Davis always knew how important it was to them both to get to play together again before time ran out.

Not only that, but the presence of Davis the playmaker as that point forward is helping Turnage thrive and his 2024 form has been phenomenal so far averaging 28.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists a game.

"He's always had that in him and he won a couple of MVP's over in Adelaide, and back in college he was our go-to guy," Davis said.

"So I knew he had that level in him again and he's had a couple of injuries the last couple of years, and maybe the structure of the team and how it was built last year didn’t necessarily suit his game style.

"But this year, we've sort of put together a really good group of guys and the vibes in the locker room are really high right now, and CJ is our main weapon.

"We also have so many other weapons all over the floor that we can be dangerous everywhere, but CJ is definitely feeling the fruits of the way the team is set up this year and we'll keep backing him to do what he's doing."

Perfect start to life at Wolfpack

The only thing Davis might change so far about his first six games at the Wolves is that he wouldn’t mind shooting a little better, but the reality is he has been a key component in the perfect 6-0 start for the Wolfpack.

That included Joondalup beating the Rockingham Flames on the road last week but Davis is still seeing areas for the Wolves to keep on improving and there's still Jeremy Combs to join them in 2024.

"It's going really well so far but even in that win last week there were a few statistical areas we were a bit concerned about against Rockingham," he said.

"If you look at all the stats besides the turnovers, they probably should have beaten us but the games aren’t played on paper, they are played in real life and that's what I try to keep reminding Dave (Morrell) our coach.

"Whilst there is all the stats on paper and Rockingham won most of those, in real life we won the game and will take that, and move forward.

"We have been looking forward to these games against the top echelon teams just because we want to be exposed in areas that we will come finals time now so we can have a look at what we're doing, and fix it from week to week.

"Playing against those top teams they can expose some weaknesses so it was really good to get that against Rockingham last week, and now we have a stretch of those games to come."

Tough decision to leave Warwick

Having grown up playing at Warwick, coming back from college to play with the Senators, to win a championship and to be such a star key player on the team for 144 games, deciding to leave was never going to be an easy one for Davis.

But with the way things were shaping up with the somewhat changing of a guard at the Senators coming into 2024, if he was going to make the leap he felt like this was the perfect time to do it.

"At the end of last year I didn’t have sort of any desire or anything like that to move on," Davis said.

"I do get contacted by teams every year trying to pull me away from Warwick, but I never seriously entertained it because there was no reason to leave.

"But with Cody retiring and Trigger (Luke Brennan) moving on as coach, and there was talk of Ethan moving on somewhere too so it was a bit of a breakup of a lot of the core guys.

"Me and CJ have been talking about playing together for years, and I tried to get him to Warwick a couple of years ago, but we always wanted to play together again.

"We've had it on our radar pretty much ever since we left college because we are like yin and yang on the court together. We really bounce off each other well with our skill sets so we've always wanted the chance to do this.

"It just seemed like the perfect time this year and I bit the bullet. I knew it wasn’t going to be a popular move, but I just realised it would come with it and sometimes you have to do things for yourself, and this was one of those."