Eagles take stock after tough double

Featured image: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

Starting slowly in games is something East Perth Eagles coach Carl Filpo knows his team can't continue to do but at the halfway point of NBL1 West season it's a chance to take stock and focusing on those areas they need to fix up.

The Eagles did make a good start to the season winning five of the opening seven matches but they've now lost the last four games including losing on consecutive nights last weekend away to the Perry Lakes Hawks and at home to the Joondalup Wolves.

That leaves them with a 5-6 record to be sitting in seventh position and despite those last four losses, they remain on track for a third consecutive finals appearance but Filpo does know they need to tidy things up to ensure that eventuates.

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It's the exact halfway point of the season now for East Perth with 11 games to go starting this Saturday night back at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre for Heritage Round against the Perth Redbacks.

It's been a mixed bag for the Eagles so far and now there's also been a change of imports with the departure of Max Rice and arrival of De'Sean Parsons while Steve Weingarten and Lat Mayen are now part of the line-up who weren’t there when the season started.

Overall, Filpo remains confident that with the talented, experienced and capable group he has at his disposal that the more they play together, they more they are going to click.

"We will reflect on the season so far and we had the exact same record at this stage this year and we have bigger depth this year," Filpo said

"As long as we can get some chemistry going and find the way right shots, I think we'll be good. It's an opportunity this weekend of course and Redbacks will be hungry as well, but the next few games are going to be important for us."

Departure of Max Rice

The weekend was also the last two games for the Eagles for sharpshooter Max Rice who has accepted a coaching position back at the college he had an outstanding playing career with, Boise State University.

Rice has had to return home in preparation of pre-season starting for the Broncos and Filpo would never have stood in his way, but will miss him and wife Taylor.

"Max became like family to us and stayed with us over last year and we got to know him really well, and he's such a great guy," Filpo said.

"Boise are lucky to have him I think and it's a dream job for him and certainly not something we can compete with. We were trying to hold on to him for the rest of the season but they will start their stuff next month and will need him there for that.

"So there's no animosity, we wish him all the best and we're happy for him but we're said that we lose him from a club level and a personal level. And on the court, there's so much gravity that goes his way that opens up guys as well so we'll miss him."

De'Sean Parsons already settling in

It just all turned out to be perfect timing that at the same time Rice had to leave to head back to Boise State that De'Sean Parsons had become available after West Adelaide had to part ways with him to make room for Tasmania JackJumpers NBL star Nick Marshall to come on board.

Parsons had been playing well for the defending NBL1 Central champions with 17.5 points, 12.0 rebounds and 5.8 assists a game including 23 points, 21 rebounds and six assists in his last appearance against the then undefeated Sturt Sabres.

Parsons and Filpo reconnected as soon as he had parted ways with the Bearcats, and when Rice's pending departure, it all came together perfectly for him to join the Eagles for the rest of 2026.

Having been named to the All-First Team in the NBL1 West the last two years, he is quite the addition and then he had 16 points, 18 rebounds and 11 assists last weekend despite having injured a hand on Tuesday night in his first East Perth practice session.

"The first thing is that we have a rebounding problem and we've talked about that already, and De'Sean fixes that," Filpo said.

"He's a willing passer too so he's able to connect with high-level talented guys as well which is what we have, but he's also points production. We figured this is the perfect replacement because he kills two birds.

"He gives us Max's points production but he also helps us on the rebounds and passes the ball so it was a great pick up. And his leadership can't be underestimated either and his experience and leadership already is going to be big for us.

"We haven’t fully integrated him yet and he doesn’t know the playbook yet even though he's doing really well with it, but unfortunately he hurt himself the first 10 minutes of training last week.

"That was tough for us and his hand is hurting and we think he will be better by the weekend, but he wanted to play and he still produces 18 rebounds and 11 assists in two games so we were pretty happy with that side."

Reflecting on double header

Looking back on last weekend and a few things stood out to Filpo firstly against the Hawks away on Friday night and then at home to the Wolves on Saturday.

The starts were one thing but overall it was just that the Eagles shots weren’t falling especially with the 39 per cent shooting against Perry Lakes and 6/30 from deep before going 46 per cent against Joondalup and 11/29 from three-point territory.

"There's lots to reflect on and think about to be honest, it was a tough one, and I think what it really boiled down to against Perry Lakes was just our shot selection and our inability to make shots," Filpo said.

"Looking at the numbers and reflecting on the game, it was a big stat to miss out on and we just couldn’t seem to get guys going.

"They made some tough shots, they played really well and they played out of their skin I thought, and our guys came back towards the end but it was too little too late and we left our run too late."

Dealing with teams getting a run on

What is now becoming an unmistakable trend that Filpo has seen in his team is that they aren’t necessarily good at coming from behind and teams are able to get out to a fast start against them for things to get out of hand.

On the other side of the fence, when the Eagles have started well in games they have generally been able to stay on top and turn that into victories.

So what that highlights to Filpo is that the Eagles have to get those starts in order if they want to have success the rest of the season.

"Tough starts are hurting and we thought we had it sorted," Filpo said.

"I think it was after the Kalamunda game and we got a great start there and even when we had 20 something turnovers in that game, we still won which goes to show how well we can play when we want to play offensively.

"Because even with less loss we seem to do really well in those games when we get off to a good start. In both those games on the weekend, they were just a horrid start in both of them and then against the Wolves we couldn’t stop Sharif Black.

"That was on us and as good as he played, it was really defensively not what we practiced. We just allowed him to score layups and they got us in transition and all the stuff that we thought we had it sorted, and we showed that we didn’t.

"But again, we came back and we won the second half by a decent amount but we dug ourselves a hole too deep that we couldn’t get out of."