Response key for Eagles in crucial double

Image credit: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

East Perth Eagles women's coach Tim Symons did deliver a brutal review of Saturday's first half against the Cockburn Cougars and is looking to the response in a season-defining double this weekend.

The Eagles put in a strong showing on Friday night at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre to beat the Perth Redbacks 96-84 in a performance that saw them close in on returning to the top four.

They then faced the challenge of taking on the undefeated Cougars at Wally Hagan Stadium on Saturday evening and the first half left plenty to be desired for Symons just in the sense of the team not following the game plan.

They were 24 points down at half-time as a result but then Symons saw a glimpse of what the team was capable of when implementing the game plan as they pulled the Cockburn lead back to 10 points midway through the third quarter.

They weren’t able to sustain that, though, and ended up losing by 35 points to end up splitting the weekend's double-header to finish it with an 8-5 record and to remain in fifth position.

It leads into another crucial weekend now starting at home to the Perry Lakes Hawks on Friday night and then away to the Lakeside Lightning on Saturday, Symons is looking forward to the response after what was a brutal review.

"There's no other time like the present and my review with the girls on two quarters against Cockburn went for six hours so it was fairly brutal," Symons said.

"It wasn’t about naming and shaming, but it was about taking accountability for executing our plan against what the scout was.

"That didn’t matter if it was Abby, Sasha or anyone off the bench, there were no prisoners and everyone is held to account the same. Part of that process is that if we need to use that rebound and bring it out this weekend, and I think we have spark there but we have to turn that into a flame."

Looking back on the weekend and Symons was happy to come away with the win against the Redbacks on Friday even if he perhaps had to push his starters longer than he'd like just because of how competitive Perth were the whole way.

Abby Cubillo ended up playing all 40 minutes and then Awatea Leach, Madi Torresin and Sasha Goodlett all more than 37, but Symons still would have accepted the weekend split a bit happier had his team followed the plan longer against the Cougars on Saturday.

Then the added kick in the teeth on Saturday was the Redbacks beating the Rockingham Flames to keep the Eagles a further game back from breaking into the top four.

"The split was always going to be a good result because we stay where we're and then one of the games didn’t go our way which was the Redbacks-Rocko one," Symons said.

"That could have helped us close the game on the top four spot, but it's still achievable for us to get into the top four from here.

"The only portion of emptiness that came from me on Saturday night was where we went out with a game plan, and didn’t execute that until the third quarter. When we did, we closed the gap to 10 and if I take small graces away from that it was that it showed the plan works.

"We have to execute it for 40 minutes and not be selective with it though. All in all, you don't want to keep resetting but you have to learn when you get your pants fed to you and it was embarrassing for the girls.

"We went in afterwards and there was no bullocking, I just talked about our values and togetherness as a team, and my belief in them to provoke talk," Symons added.

"They stayed in there for ages so the accountability piece through discussion starts to make us group, and if we don’t become accountable it's never going to change.

"They are a great group, we learnt from Saturday and Cockburn are well-oiled, they came out and played hard and fast, and disrupted us to take us out of our game. There's no excuse, but we have to be better with adapting and executing the plan. Then it becomes my problem to have the right plan."

One bright spot from an emerging player grabbing her chances in 2025 is Ari van Vilet.

In what was just the 46th game of her NBL1 West career, she might well have had her most significant impact in her 12 minutes on Friday night where she had four points and a rebound against the Redbacks with the Eagles +5 with her on the floor.

Symons has long been a big supporter of hers and will continue to give her the opportunity to show what she's capable of.

"Against Redbacks, I told Ari she had one minute out there and I told her to go and turn that into whatever she wanted it to be if she did what we asked," Symons said.

"Other than because she was gassed, she made it so I couldn’t take Ari off the court. She grabbed her one minute and turned into being a bit of a game changer for us.

"She hit bodies, she boxed out, she scored, she got some big stops for us. We tried it again on Saturday and it was a slightly different line-up for the bigs so we just have to know our poison when that does come up.

"But I rate Ari and have done since she played for me in under-18s, and she will be given more opportunity and it will come in one-minute blocks to start with."

The first task of this weekend's double-header for the Eagles is playing host to a Perry Lakes team currently just behind them in sixth position with a 6-6 record, and coming off two wins over the Joondalup Wolves by a combined 66 points.

Symons does remain confident in his team's chances up against them provided they do as they are asked.

"It's only when you start watching a bit of tape that you fully understand just how deep that team is," Symons said.

"The two Wanneroo games they've just had, it was tough trying to take too much out of them because it was a bit of a bloodbath, but then I cast it to Rockingham and they are two very similar teams with how they want to play.

"We've held Rockingham and I think we can hold the Hawks. It's a similar sort of game style that we go into with fast trans teams and if we don’t shut it down early or get through our structure, it's going to be a long night at the office."