Fate steps in as Jjay reaches 300 v Redbacks

Image credit: Michael Farnell (Sports Imagery)

Part of Jess Jakens' heart will always be at Perth Redbacks so it's only fitting her 300th NBL1 West game is against them with Perry Lakes Hawks while she is thankful for the success she's enjoyed since making that decision to move on.

Jakens grew up at the Redbacks, made her SBL debut with them in 2011 aged just 16 and went on to play 233 with the club including being an inspirational captain up to the end of 2022.

But sometimes things run their natural cause and four years on and there's no bad blood there between Jakens and her former captain as she now prepares for the 300th game of her SBL/NBL1 West career this Saturday.

She will be doing so while playing her sixth game for Perry Lakes having joined the Hawks in 2026 on the back of a Grand Final season at the Willetton Tigers and two with the Rockingham Flames including the championship triumph of 2024.

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Jakens now hopes to settle at Perry Lakes after having moved around the past four years but also enjoying the best success of her career and it can't be glossed over for a player renowned for her unmatched hustle and undersized rebounding top-scored for the Flames in that championship triumph.

Now to reach 300 games, it is a chance for Jakens to reflect and she always knew that fate would step in some way to ensure the Redbacks were rightfully part of the milestone.

"Honestly I had to have a little bit of a laugh about it because I was looking through the fixtures to see when I played my former teams and I wasn’t sure exactly when my 300th was going to be," Jakens said.

"I knew it was going to be coming up early in the season but then some people collated the dates and that's when I realised it would be against the Perth Redbacks.

"Anyone that knows me and knows my life wasn’t surprised in the slightest and neither was I when I saw it.

"But for me it's almost fate and it means that there will be a lot of people there that grew up watching me play basketball, a lot of my friends and a lot of my family from the Redbacks too.

"So they will all get to watch me play my 300th with is something that I think is exciting for me."

What's it mean to reach 300 games

This week has allowed Jakens the chance to reflect on the journey to reach 300 games having started out as that energetic 16-year-old to the Redbacks, to winning a championship on RAC Arena with the Flames, and now being that veteran presence at the Hawks.

What really makes it hit home to her what the milestone means is the list of 28 players she now joins to have reached the mark in the women's SBL/NBL1 West dating back to 1989.

And Jakens has a rich history of playing against a lot of them including Casey Mihovilovich (596), Nicole Jorre de St Jorre (479), Rachel Halleen (403), Jodee Sontay (378), Emma Berryman (371), Tegan Walker (370), Kate Fielding (364), Tarsha Fletcher (360), Taryn Priestly (349), Jess Van Schie (330), Nicole Roberts (330) and Chelsea Petrik (305).

"It has been a big week of reflection when I've started to hear from some people and I have started to realise how big the number 300 is," Jakens said.

"If you look at some of the other people in the league who have achieved that and I feel like they've been playing forever or are cornerstones in the league, and then I realise I've actually been playing forever now it feels like.

"And my body is also telling me that. But this week is just a big part of a reflective journey of all the things that I have got to do and the people I've got to meet, and the things I've had the opportunity to experience because of playing basketball, and playing basketball in WA.

"That is the most exciting part for me about it."

Moving on from Redbacks

While it was the toughest decision at least on a basketball front Jakens might ever have to make, with the benefit of hindsight she has no doubt it was the right one to move on from the Redbacks at the end of 2022.

From a Redbacks point of view, under coach Tim Rendulic they have turned things around and played finals the past two years and then for Jakens, she played in her first Grand Final with Willetton in 2023 and then won a championship with Rockingham in 2024.

"I think leaving the Redbacks was one of the hardest decisions honestly at that time I'd ever had to make, and still probably to this day has been a real pivotal moment in my life," Jakens said.

"It was a place where I held a lot of my identity and proudly so I did for a long time. So that decision wasn’t easy and I made lots of calls to lots of various people when I did to make sure that I was doing what was right for me.

"And I feel like I left the club on their way up and they've had some success since I left as well so my decision to leave was not because it was looking like they were on the decline.

"It's really hard what I felt like was a brave thing then and not sure if it would pay off because I said I wanted to strive to play in many more post-season matches, and to contend for grand finals and championships.

"To be able to play in a Grand Final in the first year that I leave and then to win a championship in the second I think was a solidifying moment in the decision that I made and my ability to trust what I thought could be achieved."

Reflecting on championship triumph

Then as good as it was to reach a Grand Final in 2023, being part of a losing one wasn’t exactly what Jakens was craving so she was hoping the move to Rockingham could be where she was part of a team going one step better.

That didn’t look like happening at RAC Arena with the Cockburn Cougars leading by three with five minutes to play before the Flames scored the next 19 points to secure the championship and Jakens scored nine of those.

She ended up top-scoring with 21 points as she celebrated and got to live out all her dreams of celebrating a championship on RAC Arena and doing so alongside some long-time rivals like Shani Amos and Emma Gandini in the process.

"It honestly was like the fairytale moment and it's the sort of stuff they write bloody Netflix stories about, but I think all year it was something that our team had been really focused on," Jakens said.

"You go into every season hoping for that, but with the line-up we had ths year and the buy in and culture that we had with that team, everyone from Marcus (Wong) all the way through were so focused.

"It kinda felt like it was almost going to be inevitable, but not in an easy way. I think once Robbi hit that game winner in the Lakeside game to send us into the Grand Final, it was like a holy moly moment that we were going to be playing at RAC Arena and that I was gong to be doing it with some of my very best friends that I've known for decades, and some for only that season.

"To play on that night was wild and I remember shooting poorly at shootaround and I copped a basketball to the head, and thought it was going to be one of those nights.

"Then I remember hitting the first pick-and-roll with Alex Sharp and actually making a layup, and I felt good and I thought as a team we've got this.

"Then Marcus always laughs so hard at this, but I actually didn’t ever look at the score for the entire game but I had faith in my team that they would lead me in what needed to be done, and it wasn’t until I shot a jump shot that missed and someone told me we were OK anyway.

"That's when I looked up and we were up by 15 or 16, and I realised that we were about to do what I've been waiting my whole career for to win a Grand Final. It was an unforgettable night and forever will be unforgettable."

Being banged up through playing style

There might have never been a player who puts her body on the line and plays a physical style more than Jakens which is why over 299 games she's built that reputation as an undersized big as someone who is relentless in her battle for rebounds, loose balls and being the ultimate team player.

That takes a toll on anyone's body eventually, but for now as she prepares for game No. 300 she is still feeling pretty good.

"I would say it's just sheer willpower and a lot of anti-inflammatories that has got me through, but it's just the way that I've based my game and I don’t really know any different," Jakens said.

"I'm pretty active at my job every day so I think that probably helps being able to play those long stints and dealing with the physicality.

"My body's holding up OK for me I would say, but the colder mornings are hurting a little bit more and Marcus (Embury) made note that we are on average the youngest team on the league.

"I thought that was very flattering of him to include me in that as someone whose age starts with a 3 in our team. I feel OK and that I've got a little bit more in the tank to be able to give."

Joining Perry Lakes in 2026

Jakens did briefly consider not playing at all in 2026 because of study commitments and full-time work as a nanny to a family with two children that she's now been doing for eight years, but she wasn’t ready to step away form the game yet.

So the Flames were still in the reckoning after David Morrell was appointed coach, but ultimately that commute to and from Rockingham was something Jakens could no longer justify.

She was looking for someone closer to home and when her championship coach Marcus Wong suggested her to get in touch with new Perry Lakes coach Marcus Embury, it didn’t take long for them to click.

"The biggest reason was just pure logistics and I needed to be playing somewhere closer to home because I didn't have the time to be travelling to Rockingham and back anymore," Jakens said.

"I'm working full-time, I'm studying almost full-time and that has prac and on-call components. A lot of the team dispersed too and Alex (Sharp) has gone back over east, so has GP (Georgia Pineau), Dora (Sophie Doran) is at Redbacks, Emma (Gandini) is back at Willetton.

"So to justify that time driving was getting a bit harder for me on top of all the things I was trying to do, and eventually find some time to sleep during the week at some stage.

"I actually had some great off-season chats with David about the team and they were still pretty late going into late in the pre-season but I couldn’t justify the travel so I was chatting to Marcus Wong for some advice and he coaches with Marcus Embury at Townsville in the WNBL.

"He thought I'd be a great fit to join him at Perry Lakes so I had a call with him, I outlined that I could be a pretty good Sixth Man and asked if he wanted me on board because I'm not ready to stop playing basketball.

"I told him I was looking to find somewhere I could settle again for a while and contribute in lots of different ways, and be at for a little bit of time.

"He had signed for two years so he wanted me to do the same and now here I am. I want to have an impact on growing women's basketball wherever I'm and I am really enjoying my time so far at Perry Lakes."