Thwaites ready to help Cougars grow further in 2024

Fresh off leading the Cockburn Cougars to a first ever NBL1 West women's championship in 2023, coach Tyrone Thwaites is focused on making sure his team is even better to defend that title in 2024.

Thwaites has now been coach of the Cougars women's team since taking over the helm in 2020 and there was consistent improvement each season up until the ultimate success in 2023 when they were able to break through for the NBL1 West championship.

Along the way, Thwaites was named the Coach of the Year but the work is far from done and he's anything but content with that success, and is already focused on how to make his Cougars team better as reigning champions heading into 2024.

Player retention is key to that and it appears the majority of the players will be returning for the 2024 NBL1 West season with the only obvious departure being captain Kirsty Whitfield who has retired.

That has Thwaites excited for what 2024 will hold, but ultimately there wasn’t much thinking he needed to do about returning for next season.

"I've always said that as long as the prospect of thinking about game day, and walking into game day still remains as exciting as it was the first time I did it, then I want to keep doing it as long as the club is supportive of that," Thwaites said.

"I still feel that way so it's a no-brainer to want to continue in the role."

Just like players, it's only natural for a coach to dream about what the experience would be like to lead their team to a championship. Since taking over the role in 2020, the ultimate goal for Thwaites with the Cougars was to build the women's program up to the point to compete for a championship, and to win one.

Now that it's happened, it certainly lived up to any expectations that Thwaites might have had, but more so because of seeing and hearing how much it meant to so many people while the fact he's a championship coach is still sinking in.

"It's really hard because I still feel as though it hasn’t sunk in fully. The other day I went back and actually watched the highlights from the night because it's still such a blur, and seeing those moments immediately following the game makes you realise it does live up to expectations," Thwaites said.

 It's more the little moments in all of it and like the moments for KP, the moments for Vanessa Cahill or Chels Evans watching, and even Fleur watching from Sydney and knowing what it meant. 

"Then things like the chance of having two life members presenting the rings after the game and experience the turnaround it's been for Steph the last 12 months. And even to have a couple of our juniors to come through and experience that in their first year. 

"There's so many different little moments that stand out and you don't really know what to expect, but I did think about what it would feel like to walk into a grand final and be part of it. You do visualise that but then to actually experience it, it's a pretty surreal feeling and it's the little moments that standout for me."

Just like winning a chamiopnship was a new experience for everyone at the Cougars in 2023, now dealing with being the reigning champions and having a target on their back will something new for them to go through in 2024.

While Thwaites is looking forward to that challenge, he also knows they will have to improve and can't expect just to do the same things and get the same results again in 2024.

"You never really know because you've never been in this position before and to be fair, neither have any of the girls in our program," Thwaites said.

"The way we've been talking about it is that if we deal with things the same way we did this year then we can't actually expect the same results in my view.

"We've been on the other side of the equation where you're watching other teams develop and trying to chase them down, and constantly in that mindset of continuous improvement. 

"If I apply the same logic to the other teams, they're going to want to be better next year so we can't be content or assume the same thing will get it done. We need to make sure that we're better next year and you don't just do that through personnel, you do it through putting the work in. 

"I've been proud of the group already for doing the work this off-season and there's not a single person who has signed and isn’t doing the work in some shape or form. 

"I think we were the fittest team in the competition this year and we could run out games better than anybody and our last quarters were exceptional, and teams couldn’t stay with us. 

"We'll be the fittest team for day one of pre-season when we move the basketballs out and get moving, and work to get better. There's no one content in this program and what's most pleasing is that they are excited about having a target on their back."

The most pleasing thing about the preparations already for the 2024 season for Thwaites is the fact that the majority of the group appears to be committing to return to have a crack at being back-to-back champions.

"In terms of our core rotation, we really only think we'll lose KP and to be honest we gain Jaya Scafidi who most have forgotten about," Thwaites said.

"She's coming off an ACL so it will be a bit of a grind at times for her, but she's back playing fully now and will have a full off-season ahead of her to build her fitness. She's already played a couple of games in the off-season competition and is getting better. 

"We're still exploring what we do in the restricted space but in essence Regan has come in to fill the void of Patty so for us that's a wonderful asset. Regan will be here for the whole off-season and will arrive here soon and will be here for the full pre-season, which is a huge bonus at this level. 

"That's another adult we'll have floating around with our pretty young bench. Continuity for us is relatively important and to have as a minimum Jewel, Jessie and Steph as our starters back who know the way we want to play and what our identity and culture looks like, we couldn’t ask for more. 

"Then for the young kids on the bench, we won't have any core pieces of our rotation experiencing their first seasons next year so we might be the most experienced young team in the competition."