East Spotlight | Sea Eagles with perfect start to defence

Featured image: @tanyahawkinsphotography

The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles scored the first 11 points of their NBL1 East championship defence and were never headed from there to open the new season with a home 81-61 win over the Canberra Nationals.

The Sea Eagles were the dominant team of the 2025 NBL1 East on the way to the championship and doing so with a 19-game winning streak as they celebrated that triumph to open the new the season on Saturday at Northern Beaches Indoor Sports Centre.

They were hosting a Nationals team who did make the finals last year before a first round exit to the Centre of Excellence and who are a decidedly new-look outfit in 2026 under coach Sarah McAppion.

Manly Warringah raced out to an 11-0 start with Canberra going scoreless for the first 5:15 of the game during which period they missed their opening eight shot attempts and had a couple of turnovers.

They were playing catch up the rest of the way and could never seriously threaten the Sea Eagles although they did crawl back within 15 points by three quarter-time.

But Manly Warringah pulled away again with 28 points to 23 in the fourth quarter for the 20-point win to make it 20 straight victories with the free-throw differential monstrous.

The Sea Eagles ended up going 31/39 from the stripe to just 4/8 from the Nationals.

Manly Warringah might have only had eight players available to open their championship defence and four of those played well over 30 minutes, but they all stood up.

Alex Delaney was hot early with nine first quarter points on her way to top-scoring with 25 points, six assists, five rebounds and two steals despite ending up going 3/10 from three-point range.

Josie Radan was also impressive with 20 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two steals on a supremely efficient 8/9 from the field.

Kim Dickinson added 11 points and seven rebounds, Jayda Jansen 11 points, two assists and two steals in her NBL1 East debut, and Zoey Miller five points, five rebounds, five assists, four steals and two blocks.

Carlie McAlister did all she could to keep Canberra in the contest finishing with 23 points, 18 rebounds, four assists and two steals on 11/22 field goal shooting.

She was the only player in double-figures scoring, though, with Zara Funnell ending up with nine points, three rebounds and two assists, Allison Day seven points and four boards, Emily Sampson seven points, and Jasmyn Boutzos six points and three assists.

It was the best possible start to the championship defence for the Sea Eagles scoring the opening 11 points and holding the Nationals scoreless for more than five minutes before Carlie McAlister putting them on the board eventually.

Canberra did work back into the game from there but still Manly Warringah were leading 24-13 by quarter-time with nine points including a couple of threes from Alex Delaney.

It was more dominance from the defending champs in the second quarter as they outscored Canberra 18 points to nine to go into the locker room leading 42-22 with Delaney putting up 14 points and Josie Radan 11.

Manly Warringah had taken 20 free-throw attempts to just one in the entire first half while also shooting 41 per cent from the floor to just the 25 from the Nationals.

Canberra did manage to work back into the contest in the third quarter outscoring Manly Warringah 16 points to 11 including having six second chance points and getting out to run for eight fast break points.

That had them back within 15 by three quarter-time but the Sea Eagles got rolling again in the final period with 28 points to 23 to secure the 20-point victory to begin their championship defence in ideal fashion.

Now following the Easter break, the Sea Eagles will be on the road to the Hills Hornets on Friday April 10 while the Nationals open their season at home on the Saturday against the Illawarra Hawks.

NBL EAST 2026 SEASON | ROUND 1

MANLY WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES 81 (Delaney 25, Radan 20, Dickinson 11, Jansen 11)

CANBERRA NATIONALS 61 (McAlister 23, Funnell 9, Sampson 7, Day 7)