Benger making most of second Eagles chance

Featured image: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

Mitch Benger grew up at East Perth Eagles and after a few years away, knew he'd regret if he didn’t find out if he could make it at NBL1 West level and now he's embracing his opportunities the further the 2026 season rolls on.

Benger was always an exciting talent coming through the ranks at the Eagles as a teenager and played a couple of games in the West Coast Classic season of 2020 and then hit the floor 19 times back in the 2021 season.

He showed some exciting signs too including a best of 15 points with 5/8 three-point shooting against the Perth Redbacks and scoring double figure points on another six occasions to look to be a young player the Eagles could build around.

However, Benger has spent some time away from NBL1 level and the Eagles in the years since, but knew that he would regret not giving it another crack while he was still young enough to make the most of it.

The 22-year-old is now finding his groove once again this season for the Eagles and in the past three matches, he's had two games of eight points while coming off a season-high 13 minutes last Saturday in the bounce back win on the road to the South West Slammers.

>> EAGLES RECAP | WOMEN/MEN ROUND 12

>> PARSONS HOPING TO FIND LONG-TERM PERTH HOME

>> IOANNIS' FOCUS ON ENSURING EAGLES REACH POTENTIAL

>> MALIE FEELING RIGHT BACK AT HOME WITH EAGLES

>> CAPTAIN LEE EXCITED TO SEE EAGLES GROW TOGETHER

The Eagles had lost six of the past seven games heading to Bunbury to face the Slammers on Saturday so Benger is fully aware how important it was to get the win and steady themselves in the top eight at 7-8.

"It was good and obviously we'll take a win where we can get one and I thought we executed where we needed to and still came away with the win so it was good," Benger said.

"Obviously Jonah was a late out and we still managed to get that win but I think that now we've got everyone back, we can definitely build on something.

"We're all coming together now and we're going into Round 13 and we've played some minutes together now, and everyone's playing together and I think we can definitely build something."

Coming back this year

The past four years flew by in a lot of ways from when Benger had such an encouraging 2021 season with the Eagles up until now returning in 2026.

But he's now showing once again all that potential that he had as a teenager and he's still only 22 years of age despite how long he had spent away.

In the end, he was just missing it too much so he reached out to coach Carl Filpo in the pre-season for the 2026 season and now here he is.

"I just missed competing at such a high level I guess to put it simply. I just wanted to get back to that level," he said.

"Pretty much Carl is the only person I really knew to reach out to about coming back so I reached out to him, and he was kind enough to give me an opportunity."

Wanting to give NBL1 a good crack

Given how big of a life basketball was for Benger growing up once he decided to focus on that and not football, he always knew that he would regret not giving playing at NBL1 level one more real crack.

Once he decided on that, he knew that there was no better time than now while he's still young enough to have a long career and there was nowhere other than East Perth he'd want to do it with.

"I was just playing a few domestic leagues with a few mates, nothing really too serious," Benger said.

"I was just playing here and there, but I just wanted to come back. It was definitely in the back of my mind that I thought if I didn’t at least give it another crack, I would have regretted it so here I am."

Feeling comfortable at NBL1 level

Going back to that 2021 season and even while not having turned 18 yet, Benger was well and truly showing that he could play at the NBL1 level.

So there was never too much doubt that he could do so again, but at the same time it took some time to find his groove once again and shake off some nerves, but he's feeling more and more comfortable now each time he stops back on the floor.

"I think it was up until we started doing the pre-season and I kind of got back into that old groove of how I used to play and I was scoring a couple of points," Benger said.

"That just gave me confidence again so I thought I did make the right decision to come back. It's always good to see a couple of shots go in especially when you're a bit nervous so I'm quite happy at the moment with how it's going.

"I'm definitely getting more relaxed with the more minutes that I'm playing and I'm grateful for the opportunity that I'm getting."

Eagles team you're part of

Going back to that 2021 team that Benger was part of with the Eagles, it did feature Kieran Berry, Shaquille Maharaj, Jarrad Anastasio and then Lee Roberts came in, but no disrespect to them, this group of 2026 that Benger can call teammates is at a whole other level.

It includes David Okwera, Lat Mayen and Jonah Antonio who were all part of NBL26 while De'Sean Parsons, Sharif Watson, Ioannis Dimakopoulos and Bing Huang have played professionally, and then there's still Roberts and locals like Nick Filpo, Jermaine Malie and Kai Kabugua.

Benger has been blown away by the sheer quality of teammates he now has and couldn’t be happier to be part of it.

"It's definitely a lot different to when I last played a couple of years just with the calibre of players," Benger said.

"It's absolutely crazy now and it's good for me to learn, and to build myself, and obviously to learn from all those other players.

"I still know Carl and Nick obviously from before, Lee was here when I was playing last too so it's good to have that familiarity there too for when I came back and that definitely helped make it a lot easier."