Eagles Rd 2 Preview | Home v Mandurah

Image credit: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

The East Perth Eagles will celebrate Easter with their first home games of the 2026 NBL1 West hosting the Mandurah Magic on Saturday in the Peter Campbell Basketball Arena at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre.

The Eagles opened the 2026 season last Saturday night on the road to the Willetton Tigers with an impressive win for the women while the men went down following that.

Both teams will now be in action at home on Saturday with the women's clash against the Magic getting underway at 5pm followed by the men's clash at 7pm with Perth Wildcats NBL forward Lat Mayen making his NBL1 West debut.

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WOMEN

The East Perth Eagles were tremendously impressive especially after half-time in their first game of 2026 and now will look to back that up at home on Saturday against a Mandurah Magic also coming off a first up win.

The Eagles took some time to settle in the first match of the new season last Saturday on the road to the Willetton Tigers and they did have 15 turnovers in the first half, but they were able to take control after half-time.

East Perth ended up scoring the 86-70 in the first game under new coach Jonelle Morley with a whole new playing group where everyone that came on the floor made an impact in the final result.

The Eagles now will host a Magic team at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre on Saturday evening with Mandurah also fresh off beating the Rockingham Flames to open their season last Friday night by 20 points.

There was plenty to like in the performances from both teams and now they will be out to make it a 2-0 start to the season heading into Easter when they lock horns on Saturday.

The Eagles ended up pulling down 23 offensive rebounds and got to the foul line 37 times last week against Willetton while having a whole host of strong contributors across the board.

That included Stacey Barr putting up 24 points and 12 rebounds with Jasmin Fejo adding 19 points, eight boards and five assists, Brooke Malone 13 points and six rebounds, and Zaya Black 13 points, two boards, two assists and two steals.

Sydney Wright also had nine points and four assists, Jade Williams four points and five rebounds, and Jo Odude four points and eight boards.

Mandurah were also impressive to start their season with the 20-point win at home with Claire and Mia Jacobs especially impressive, combining for 56 points, 22 rebounds, 15 assists, five steals and eight made three-pointers.

Eagles coach Morley can't wait for her first home game in charge and for the team to try and keep their momentum going.

"I'm excited to be back on this court and we've trained really hard in pre-season, and we know we didn’t shoot that well from the three-point line on the weekend but we're certainly looking forward to playing on our home rings here, and we love playing on this court," Morley said.

"Brooke Malone probably didn’t have the opening game that she was hoping for, but man, she has been training unreal and it's players like that who we can't wait to get them back out here again and in front of our home crowd."

As for the Magic team that the Eagles are coming up against, while a lot of the focus from Morley and her coaching staff will be on the Jacobs sisters, she's fully aware Vlad Alava will give her plenty more to think about than just those two.

"They were pretty amazing on the weekend and there's some stuff we're going to have to do to try and stop them from scoring in the way that they did in that first game," Morley said.

"Not only that, they've got a lot of other players that can add value to that team and you can't ever go past Vlad as a coach with what he's going to bring to the game.

"We have to be really prepared for them this weekend and we'd love to get a win at home, and to put on a bit of a show for the crowd.

"We had a really solid East Perth crowd that came down to Willetton and we want to thank all the fans for getting down there, and I think we can pack this place out with the red, blue and white on Saturday."

MEN

The East Perth Eagles men might not have quite had the start to their season they were hoping but now have the chance to get off a big start at home on Saturday night with Lat Mayen on deck against the Mandurah Magic.

The Eagles and Magic both played finals last year, both lost their opening games of the 2026 season and now will both be trying to open their accounts when they battle one another on Saturday night at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre.

Coming off winning a first final last season since the 2014 championship, the Eagles are attempting to continue their upward trajectory in 2026 but it wasn’t the start to the season they were hoping with last Saturday night's road loss to the Willetton Tigers.

The Magic opened their new season at home last Friday night as well and went down to the Rockingham Flames so that leaves both teams trying to bounce back on Saturday and get their first wins on the board for 2026.

While the Eagles will be without Jonah Antonio, who is on Australian Gangurrus 3x3 duties, and the injured Sharif Watson, they do have a significant inclusion for the first home game of the season.

Lat Mayen has signed with East Perth for the rest of the season on the back of his NBL season with the Perth Wildcats and having previously played with the Cairns Taipans and Adelaide 36ers, and leading the West Adelaide Bearcats to an NBL1 Central championship in 2025.

He joins his Wildcats teammate David Okwera in the East Perth line-up and he will make his first appearance in the red, blue and white on Saturday night in the opening home game of the season.

The Magic will also be without NBL guard Matt Kenyon who remains involved in the Championship Series this weekend with the 36ers while former Willetton Tigers import Michael Dupree is yet to arrive to resume his NBL1 career in 2026.

Eagles coach Carl Filpo is looking forward to the first home game of the season but is fully aware of the challenge ahead against Mandurah with coach Mark Utley and the weapons he still has including dynamic guard Lachlan Bertram and former NBL big man Jock Perry.

"It's always good having a home game and we are excited," Filpo said.

"It's Easter Saturday and hopefully we get a good crowd and we are pumped, and we're keen to just hurry up and get one back. We know Mandurah will be hungry because they lost as well so hopefully we're ready for them as well.

"I think they'll be coming out to fight us and they are going to have to, but the focus for us will be on Jock and Lachie obviously.

"Lachie put up 29 shots last week so I expect he's going to try and do the same, and we just have to hope he's not on and do the job on him.

"They've got some other young kids that are talented and I expect them to come out fighting, and doing everything that they can to get the win so we've gotta be ready to go."