Buccs ready for 2026 after another banner delay

Image credit: Michael Farnell (Sports Imagery)

Dayle Joseph has coached the Geraldton Buccaneers to three championships and for a second time their banner raising has been postponed the next NBL1 West season but he's rightfully excited for 2026 with Devondrick Walker soothing Johny Narkle's departure.

Going back to 2019 and Joseph led the Buccs to a championship triumph in what turned out to be the last ever SBL season after years of near misses, but then it was Covid that interrupted the banner raising ceremony at the start of 2020.

Things did go smoothly at the start of 2025 on the back of the 2024 championship triumph, but now once again the planned ceremony to open Round 1 of the 2026 season in a grand final rematch against the Warwick Senators had to be put off thanks to ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle.

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The Buccs were then always going to sit out Easter Round so they have had to wait until Round 3 this Saturday night to raise that 2025 championship banner when they play host to the Perry Lakes Hawks at Active West Stadium.

As always, it won't be the same team on board to start the new season. There'll be no Narkle who is now at the Cockburn Cougars while Aaron Ralph might be in the building, but the two-time championship captain and all-time three-point leader won't be suiting up him having retired.

"It always is a memorable night and I was only just thinking back to when we have done the last couple of times and what the process was to celebrate on that first home game of the next season," Joseph said.

"Going back to 2020 and we rocked up to have our banner raised from 2020 and it got abandoned about four hours before the start so that didn’t eventuate the way we were hoping, and now it's been a similar issue this year.

"But our first game will still be at home at least and it's something we get to share with our home supporters and sponsors, and everything like that so we can't wait and even more having had a bit of an extra wait for it now."

Building a squad without Ralph, Narkle

Keeping a core group together has been one of the great strengths of the Buccaneers. That's why not only have they won three championships under Joseph, but their consistency has been remarkable.

Just over the past four seasons, they've finished the regular season either first or second each time with a combined 74-14 record on the way to two championships, three grand finals and then a shock preliminary final loss at home to Willetton in 2024 thrown in.

But now coming into 2026, there are some significant changes including the retirement of Ralph and departure of Narkle with Akeem Springs, Nik DeSantis and Ryan Blanchett also moving on.

There's no shortage of talent coming in, though, including former MVP Devondrick Walker, new import Josh Banks and Cooper Creek who is fresh off a breakout season at the Senators and then playing in the UK for the Reading Rockets.

Joseph initially wasn’t sure what direction to go in building the squad for 2026, but couldn’t be happier with the way it's now come together.

"We were struggling a little bit in terms of working out what we thought we needed and what we were going to do to replace some of those players that were leaving," Joseph said.

"The import side of things wasn’t too much of an issue because there's lots of them around and it's about trying to pick the right one, and we feel like we've done pretty well with Joshua Banks coming in.

"He's impressed early on already even before our season has officially started so I'm really looking forward to what he can bring. Then there's Cooper Creek who we signed early on as well who was looking for some opportunity and we jumped on that.

"We think he'll be a really good fit playing with Liam up front for us and he can play some different roles whether that's three through five, and we think he'll be a really good fit in our squad.

"So once we got all that together and keeping Verle (Williams) here was a big part of that so things have sort of fallen into place, and I think puts us around the mark again I think.

"We always start off hoping we can make the playoffs and then try to be competitive, and if we're doing well early then obviously we can aim a little bit higher. That's what we will be hoping for again."

Champion team always the focus

The Buccaneers have had no shortage of brilliant individual players that have been a key part of their success since Joseph returned to coach in 2019, but the key for him has been to make sure all the pieces fit together.

That's always been with a core leadership of Mat Wundenberg, Ralph and Hunt while also bringing through emerging young talent with Narkle the obvious prime example, but then whatever other pieces come in have to fit the culture.

That's again the focus for 2026 and has potentially dominant as Walker can be if he recaptures the form that he showed back in 2022, 2023 and parts of 2024 with the Rockingham Flames, Geraldton certainly aren’t relying on him needing to come in and take charge.

He won't need to either on a team still featuring Josh Keyes, Verle Williams, Hunt and Wundenberg with Creek and Banks also on deck.

"To be honest I think in the past we've really proved that you don't necessarily need to get the best players to come and play for you to win, but obviously we've produced pretty good players when you talk about Liam and Johny and guys like that," Joseph said.

"But they sort of evolve within the team and the system that we play, and then they get their individual accolades after that as well, but you don't always have to have the best superstar type of players.

"And even in saying that we have Devondrick now, no one really knows if we're getting a better version of Devondrick after a year off or someone who might take a little while to get back to that level we know he can get to.

"Obviously we're hoping we get something very close to his best and he's looking very good. He's still monitoring his work rates and stuff like that, but he's well and truly ready to play high minutes now in our first game."

Adding a superstar in Devondrick

Speaking of Walker, after he had to sit out 2025 to get his body right, he has continued to develop his basketball mind and is fresh off being an assistant coach this past WNBL season with the Perth Lynx under his former Rockingham coach Ryan Petrik.

But he always had the vision of getting back to playing having had time to recharge his body. Joseph is looking forward to not only what he brings on the floor in Geraldton, but off it as well.

"I think it's a big coup not only on the floor for us, but off the floor as well and I think Devondrick really wants to concentrate on getting the season done playing-wise, but he's open to helping out some of the others and maybe with the women's program that we're trying to get off the ground," Joseph said.

"He can be a bit of a leader in that space as well for us and it all just happened by chance when we had a phone when I was trying to get a reference for another player from Devondrick. That turned into recruiting him here to Geraldton so it couldn’t have turned out better to be honest."

Johny v Devondrick

Speaking of Walker, in a lot of ways he comes to Geraldton and replaces the role that Narkle has filled in recent seasons where he was Grand Final MVP in both 2023 and 2025 to end up earning an NBL opportunity with the Illawarra Hawks.

The pair are no stranger to playing against one another either and once the Buccs to play the Cougars for the first time with both Walker and Narkle in their respective new line-ups, Joseph is looking forward to that battle.

"It's funny you say that, but not long ago I was just looking at some highlights from 2024 and I think Devondrick had 30-something on us when he was at Rockingham," Joseph said.

"It just happened to pop up on something and I was watching that, and Johny was still in his learning phase back then a little bit and played a fair bit on Devondrick in that game.

"So it won't be new for either of them to be playing against one another, they'll just be doing it from different sides now but Johny is obviously a lot better and stronger player than he was even if it was only a couple of years ago now."

Johny moving on to next phase

Joseph and so many people at Geraldton played such a pivotal role in the development of Narkle into being one of the finest basketballers in WA where it was inevitable he would get an NBL opportunity.

In the end, that chance came in NBL26 courtesy of the Illawarra Hawks and even while being a development player, he still hit the court 18 times in the 33-game season and averaged more than eight minutes in those.

He had some great highlight moments with blocks, steals, dunks and three-point shots too, and Joseph couldn’t have been happier for him and wishes him nothing but the best now with Cockburn.

"It was really cool to see him actually playing and I did have a conversation with Johny just a few weeks ago when he was in town and told him what a great opportunity he had, and that he went to the best club that could fit him in and suit his needs a little bit," Joseph said.

"I told him that he got to play more than I ever thought he would get to play and I thought he might just be there to train, and play some garbage minutes.

"But for them to be throwing him in early in the season and then putting him in early in games, I thought that was pretty cool that they gave him those opportunities.

"They obviously think he's going to be of help to them down the track so hopefully that helps his development and then in turn helps Illawarra if he can continue to play for them."

Playing first game against him

The Buccs will now play the Cougars for the first time at home on Anzac Day this season and then again on the road on July 11.

Joseph is actually looking forward to taking on Narkle and his new team.

"It will be a little bit strange, but I've told this to Johny and even to the Cougars coach and people associated there, there's nothing but love here for Johny as a player and a person, and that's never going to change," Joseph said.

"We're going to love the opportunity and the challenge of playing against him as well. I just hope it's a really good game and we both play at our best, and it will be really cool that he's a big part of what they do in the future and that it helps him in his career moving forward."