Eagles Week 2 Finals Preview

Featured image: Mark Filpo, @codexdesignstudio

The East Perth Eagles will be the home team in a women's final for the first time in five years on Friday night when they play host to the Goldfields Giants with a place in Sunday's preliminary final the prize on offer.

In the first ever season when the SBL officially transformed in the NBL1 West back in 2021, the Eagles had a strong women's season finishing the regular season in fourth place at 11-7 before losing to the Warwick Senators in the semi finals.

That was a Senators team ironically coached by Jonelle Morley as well who is now in charge at the Eagles as of 2026 and has been so successful in getting the Eagles to a third place finish that she was named NBL1 West Coach of the Year.

It was a long road back for East Perth following that 2021 season with a combined 16-44 record over the next three seasons with a 10th place finish in each of them before they did return to finals last year with coach Tim Symons getting things back on track.

Now Morley has taken over as of 2026 and put together a squad that could play she wanted to, they've all come together to create good chemistry and now they will hope that all comes together on Friday night at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre.

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Given the Eagles were calling Herb Graham Recreation Centre home back in 2021, Friday night will be the first time that there has been a women's final played at Morley ever in the NBL1 era and going back considerably further than that.

The challenge ahead of the Eagles on Friday night at Peter Campbell Basketball Arena is the travelling Goldfields Giants in what is shaping as a fascinating match up.

After finishing the regular season in third place with a 15-5 record, East Perth suffered a two-point loss in last Saturday night's qualifying final against the Rockingham Flames.

The Giants, meanwhile, made the finals for the first ever time from sixth position at 9-11 and beat the Lakeside Lightning in Kalgoorlie last Saturday night to set up this Friday night's match up.

The two teams only met once during the regular season and that was back on June 27 in Kalgoorlie when East Perth beat Goldfields 100-80 but the Giants were missing superstar forward Sierra Moore for that match up.

There will be plenty of fascinating match ups too including the battle of centres with Jade Williams up against Delaynie Byrne, and point guards with Sydney Wright facing off with a combination of Hazelle Yam and Lexi Pana.

You've also got captains Stacey Barr and Rachel Pettit who won't be shy getting up the shots, and then Brooke Malone and Sarah Mortensen sharing the forward spots up against Moore and Chloe Zorzi from the Giants.

Malone is looking forward to the challenge for the Eagles up against the Giants, and to get to play at home with a preliminary final spot against Cockburn on the line.

"I think we just go in with a clear head and go into this weekend like it's a new week, we're playing a new team and it's pretty much prepping the same to make sure that we work as hard as we can to put ourselves as we can to hopefully get to Sunday," Malone said.

"Everyone's going to be tough at this time of year and they just played really well against Lakeside coming into this game now so for us it's about preparing to play them, and go in with our game plan and make sure we execute it to the best of our abilities."