Eagles chemistry key to early success

Image credit: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

While East Perth Eagles women's coach Tim Symons sees his 3-0 team still as a work in progress on court early this NBL1 West season, he's blown away by how well they are clicking together and that chemistry is where any success starts.

It has been an impressive start to the new NBL1 West season for the Lady Eagles with the wins over the Rockingham Flames, Mandurah Magic and Eastern Suns by an average of 16 points with plenty to like.

Firstly, the new pieces signed by first-year coach Symons are fitting in tremendously starting with standout point guard Abby Cubillo and then imposing centre Sasha Goodlett.

Versatile Kiwi Awatea Leach is providing plenty too, returning import Madison Torresin is always dangerous, Akim Lual is impressive and then there's returning leaders Tessa Morrison and Taylor Roberts and an emerging group of young locals.

The East Perth team is still not complete yet for the season either and while the signs have been encouraging over the first three weeks, Symons feels they haven’t come close to fully clicking at the offensive end and defensively it has been good, but can still improve.

The one area that is already blowing away Symons about this Eagles group of 2025, though, is the quality of character he has in his players and the way they have already connected with one another even though Goodlett and Torresin only arrived days out from the season-opener.

"I couldn’t be any more stoked with the group of people we've got in our team and if I focus on the human beings, we couldn’t have asked for a better group," Symons said.

"They've integrated as personalities with each other quickly and I've never seen smiles and laughter like they have while still focusing on business on the training track, and the supportive nature of them all.

"Taylor Roberts is probably our best three-point shooter and she had a bit of a disaster on Thursday night with it, but it was just still all about encouragement from everybody. It's all about the belief they have in each other and it's pretty cool to have it this early."

Speaking of that offence, the Eagles combined to shoot 18/44 at 40.9 per cent in the first two games of the season against Rockingham and Mandurah, but it was tougher going against Kalamunda with the eventual 4/22 from three-point territory.

The great bonus of having a strong post player like Goodlett who is a willing and able passer is that she will be able to find the shooters. It's going to become a strength for Symons to utilise on this Eagles team as the season goes on.

"It's funny, you look at numbers in this early piece and after Round 2 we had the highest clip at three-point land at 40 per cent and then we shot it like a rock in that last game," he said.

"That happens and my encouragement to the girls is that you've got to keep shooting, and you're going to have those nights. But we have to believe in what we've got from the inside to get the presence from the outside."

The other great positive is that even though the Eagles are 3-0 and that both Goodlett and Cubillo have fitted in well, Symons has no doubt that both of them will only continue to improve.

What Cubillo is doing as a tenacious, playmaking and physical point guard has her in the discussion not only as one of the best point guards in the NBL1 West, but the entire country as she shows why she is a two-time WNBL champion.

Then there is Goodlett and she provides is East Perth with a strong, tall and imposing interior presence that is increasingly rare to find across the competition.

The former WNBA championship winner is settling in perfectly in her first visit to Australia and putting up 20.7 points and 9.0 rebounds across the first three games, but Symons feels she has lots of improvement in her too.

"Sasha hasn’t even hit her straps yet and we're still trying to get the integration right on the reads with each of the players," Symons said.

"She is a true back to the boards big and she's not selfish so I encourage teams to come and double-team her and just see what happens to their own peril as we move forward."

Cubillo and Goodlett are natural leaders too considering what they have already done in their careers, but Symons is also mindful to get to know his players and work out the best way to utilise their strengths on and off the court.

"We put Abby into the senior leadership group pretty quick because I had a personal click there with her, and just because of her personality," Symons said.

"Sasha will be another add to that, but it's just about understanding the chemistry of how people react before we overcommit on too many strong personalities.

"I'm a great believer in not overpromoting people outside of their current capabilities so given Sasha's come off a captaincy and gone to the WNBA, it's still about getting that right fit before we throw her in too deep.

"But she's not shy on giving the feedback to the girls and even with creases of what we're trying to do and to get organised offensively. We aren’t organised yet at the offensive end but we're getting closer and closer, and we're reasonably happy with our defence."

Symons has had a stint as a caretaker head coach before, he has been an assistant coach and he's spent a lifetime in basketball firstly as a player, and then even as part of the board at the Eagles and a term as president.

So he was never going to be overawed by becoming the head coach of the Eagles women permanently for this season, but one thing he has been surprised by is just how all encompassing the role is. He is making sure he takes on board what his coaching staff and players contribute.

"It's fairly addictive to be honest. You take on an assistant role and you are going to a drumbeat where you want to influence change, but now in this role it's all on my shoulders although I have a great group that I can bounce off around me," Symons said.

"Because of the experience too I can bounce off a lot of the players because this is not a dictatorship, it's all about pulling a group together who want to go to war as a team.

"There's been areas that are non-negotiable and want we do defensively is non-negotiable, but at the offensive end it's definitely negotiable and the players have some freedom there. It's been a good journey so far, but it's really early and we will go through our ups and downs.

"And how we recover from the downs will be our first challenge because 3-0 is awesome, but we're not going to go through undefeated as great as that would be. We have to respond when we get a kick."