Eagles take stock after splitting double-header double

Image credit: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

Leading into consecutive double-headers and East Perth Eagles coach Carl Filpo knew it could define NBL1 West season, but in the end they find themselves exactly positioned where they were coming out of it with mixed emotions.

The Eagles were sitting in ninth position with a 5-7 record ahead of playing four games in eight days with the back-to-back double-headers, and now with them done they are still in ninth place only with a 7-9 record.

East Perth produced two dominant performances at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre in the two Friday nights to open both doubles firstly beating the Perth Redbacks by 28 points and then the Perry Lakes Hawks by 24.

However, it was the Saturday night road matches that proved troublesome firstly with a 15-point loss to a Cockburn Cougars team who had just lost to the previously winless South West Slammers, and then a six-point loss to the Lakeside Lightning.

The Eagles were without Jonah Antonio for all four games along with Matthew Lang and Fabian Johnson for each of the last two, but overall, coach Filpo just feels it was a missed opportunity that they can't afford to dwell on.

"You're disappointed of course because you look back at the two weeks and think about what could have been," Filpo said.

"We could be sitting in sixth position and as coaches we had talked about where we wanted to be so there's an element of disappointment, but at the end of the day that doesn’t matter.

"You just have to move forward and the opportunities are still there and it's obviously going to finish tight again just like it did last year.

"Those sixth, seventh, eighth and nineth spots are really close so you just have to keep confident and keep believing, and backing the guys in. We're just telling the guys that one of those spots is ours, we just have to go get it."

Even prior to that double-headers and East Perth lost to the Willetton Tigers the previous week so that makes it three consecutive Saturday nights that the Eagles have suffered a defeat south of the river.

The good news is that there are no more road clashes that fits that billing with the Eagles to finish at home to the Lakeside Lightning, Kalamunda Eastern Suns and Geraldton Buccaneers, and away to the Goldfields Giants, Perry Lakes Hawks and Joondalup Wolves.

But for Filpo, it runs a bit deeper than just saying it was as simple as playing on the road on Saturday night or that it was because it was the back end of a double-header or even that it was because they were playing teams beneath them in the standings.

It might very well have been a combination of all those things in the end as Filpo tries to digest the past two weeks ahead of this week's trip to Kalgoorlie.

"It became a bit of a jinx those last three Saturday nights, but to be honest I like the away games and getting around to the different stadiums," Filpo said.

"There's not really a place I think about not wanting to play at but I think because each of the last two were the second game in a double-header, that was a bit of a factor.

"I just feel like we just ran out of legs and it was our first Friday-Saturday double-header for the season, and we had them in back-to-back weeks.

"Perhaps there was an element of complacency there going into the second game and maybe you think you'll be right, but you're actually not. I also think the absence of Jonah, Matthew and Fabian took a bigger toll as well than we thought.

"On the Friday night we were able to cover them and you think you're fine when you win both those games by more than 20," he added.

"Then you roll into Saturday and maybe it's some complacency up against a team lower on the ladder, but you can never afford to do that because Lakeside and Cockburn have got talent, which we found out.

"I hope that wasn’t the mindset from the guys, it certainly wasn’t the message from us coaches, but perhaps the lack of depth caught us out in those seconds legs. That's all I can put it too."

Not having Antonio, Lang and Johnson in the back court for the Round 13 double against the Hawks and Lightning did make things a challenge with Lang and Johnson both hurt, and Antonio with the Australian Gangurrus 3x3 team at the FIBA World Cup in Mongolia.

That did open up opportunities for some young players to step up and Filpo was impressed with what Kai Kabugua with five assists across the two games, but trying to cover for an import like Lang or someone as credentialled as Antonio was never going to be easy.

"Full credit to Kai Kabugua and the guys who did step up," Filpo said.

"He's only 17 and he played really well in both of those games, but it's Jonah Antonio we're trying to replace who is probably our highest profile guy.

"That's a lot of minutes and points and defence that comes out of the team, and Matthew is our import who's been our point guard so having him out was a big out as well. Having them both out at the same time maybe it's in the second game when it takes more of a toll."