Healthy Fisher has new lease on life at Comets

Featured image: Kye Santarossa | @kye.santarossa

Eryn Fisher is feeling physically as good as she has in years, she's enjoying being a big part of a team again and is embracing her move to Sydney and feeling upbeat after two straight NBL1 East wins ahead of a challenging Anzac Weekend double.

Fisher grew up with basketball in her blood with her mother Tanya an all-time great of the sport in Western Australia including being part of the historic 1992 WNBL championship triumph for the then Perth Breakers – now the Lynx.

Along with twin sister Bree, Eryn grew up a rising star of basketball in WA too and was on the right path through her junior career to follow her mother's success starting at the Warwick Senators and then finding a home with her mum as coach for a lot of the time at the East Perth Eagles.

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A college career didn’t quite go to plan and knee injuries since have curtailed her ability to get as healthy as she'd like and get back on the court as much as she wanted in NBL1 West stints at the Kalamunda Eastern Suns and Perry Lakes Hawks the past three years.

So she was craving a fresh start in life and basketball, and bit the bullet to move to Sydney and found a home with the Comets.

Fisher has now been instrumental in their last two wins ahead of facing Shyla Heal and the Bankstown Bruins this Friday, and then the undefeated Norths Bears on Saturday.

"We were happy to get that one and it did get a bit close at the end and we were a bit nervous with that, but we pulled it up and that was a bit of a grind that game," Fisher said.

"But we're happy with that to get two wins on the board now so hopefully we can build on that now with some big tests to come.

"I'm actually loving it not knowing anyone on here because I think when you play so long in one place you almost wouldn’t even need to read a scouting anymore with everyone in Perth.

"So I've found that really refreshing walking into each game not really knowing what to expect and I think for me this was my first Round 1 I've played in three years just because of injury.

"It's been back-to-back injuries so this is the best I've ever felt and it has felt like a fresh start which has been really nice."

Career of frustration so far

Given the high hopes that Fisher had always had for her own basketball career growing up, it's only natural that the word that comes to mind when she thinks of how the journey has gone so far is frustrating.

She made her debut in the then SBL, now NBL1 West, as a 16-year-old back in 2016 in the same league her mother Tanya played 222 games in and was MVP of in 1995 and won a championship in back in 1989.

Things were then progressing nicely with Fisher emerging as one of the better power forwards across the league in 2017 and 2018 at the East Perth Eagles before she left for college at the University of Maryland – Baltimore County.

That is where the rollercoaster journey started and that wasn’t the experience she hoped, and not longer after she returned home she ruptured her ACL and it's been a tough journey just to be healthy ever since.

Fisher did start to find her groove again in the back end of the 2023 season at the Eastern Suns and it's been similarly the case the past two years at Perry Lakes, but so far frustrating is how she would sum up her journey to this point in the sport she loves.

"Up until now I would summarise it as frustrating," Fisher said.

"I sort of feel like I haven’t had a big stretch where I have felt like I've reached my potential or have been able to give as much as I want to give because my body just has not been there.

"I went to college and that was obviously a journey in itself resilience wise and with some things that happened over there, but I grew from that.

"Then I came home and then got that knee injury pretty much that next season and it's been a lot of adversity.

"But I'm pretty proud of how I've pushed through it to this point and I have been pretty lucky with the people around me who have helped me get back on the court.

"I have really good support with my physio and PT and things like that so I'm really lucky and I wouldn’t have made it through without those people.

"I love basketball and there were some very down moments for sure, but it feels good to get here now and feel really healthy, and to now try to get to where I want to be with my basketball."

Finally being healthy again

For the first time in a long time, Fisher is feeling back to her old self again physically and that's leading her to make a strong start to a first stint in the NBL1 East in the Comets.

Given the four-year run she had of battling to get healthy, Fisher is thankful to be feeling so good again because there were times she didn’t know if she'd ever get back to this point.

"I haven’t felt this good since I was 21 and first did my ACL so I'm feeling really, really good," Fisher said.

"I put a lot of work in over the off-season but I also gave my body time to rest which is something new for me as well I think.

"I feel really good coming into this season and I'm playing a bit more comfortably as well so it has been really good for me the shift so far both just from a lifestyle and work point of view, and for my basketball."

Being a big part of a team again

Across the opening four games, she is putting up 12.8 points and 7.0 rebounds a game while being out there for nearly 30 minutes on average and shooting at 48 per cent from the field.

Those are numbers rivalling what she was doing back when she did feel at her best and she must admit it's a good feeling to have a big role on a team again especially building her connection with point guard Mikayla Pirini who is one familiar face from back in Perth.

"It does feel good because I've spent the first six weeks at least for the past three seasons just trying to get healthy, and then getting back on the court and earning some minutes," Fisher said.

"Then by the time the season ends I'm feeling really good and then the season's over so it has been good this year to be healthy from the start.

"It feels good to be playing minutes again and I think for me the biggest thing is I am starting to feel like the player I used to play as, and I'm feeling more confident I can do that.

"Chantel (Horvat) has obviously been out for a couple of weeks too so everyone has had to step up a lot and people have, which has been really good, and I think it's been more team wins which is nice and has given us a bit of confidence going into the next few games that everyone can step up. All in all it's felt very good so far."

Growing up in a basketball family

Given the career her mum Tanya had in basketball and what a natural teacher and coach she was, it was only natural for Eryn and twin sister Bree to embrace playing basketball too.

They turned out being very different players with Bree ending up more of a playmaking and shooting guard while Eryn much more resembled her mum as a player as a power forward with a crafty game and someone who could outmuscle and outhustle their opponents.

Eryn will always be thankful for the grounding in basketball that Tanya gave her and Bree, and will always begrudgingly accept that any critique or reviews she gives of her performances are usually coming from an insightful viewpoint.

"I'm very grateful and I don't think I would know half as much as I do now or be the player that I am now without mum obviously," Fisher said.

"She was part of that fundamentals of who I am as a player and the things that I do as a player are because of her.

"What she used to teach Bree and I on those early morning 6am three times a week sessions with our WABL team, or sometimes it was just us three, meant Bree and I were very lucky to have had her.

"I always say that she is very frustrating to talk to after a game because I know she's right with what she's saying she saw, but I don’t really want to hear it or admit it.

"I can't argue with her, though, and sometimes I ask for her opinion or sometimes she gives it anyway, but we are very lucky to have been coached by her and obviously she had her own great carer.

"But my whole family have played, she coached my aunties at Mandurah too when she was a player-coach so we've always had a very basketball centred family."

Sharing journey with twin sister

Eryn shared all her basketball journey with sister Bree for most of her life with them starting together at the Senators, moving with each other to the Eagles and continuing to play with one another there up to 2022 even when Eryn would come back at the end of her college season.

Life then took Bree in a different direction with a move to Singapore on a New Colombo Plan scholarship at the National University of Singapore.

That was quite the opportunity that she couldn’t pass up so for a lot of the last few years the twins haven’t spent a lot of time together, but it just means they make the most of it when they do get the opportunity.

"Honestly we haven’t spent a whole lot of time together the last few years really," Fisher said.

"There was a period when she came back from Singapore and I was home as well, and then I recently was overseas for quite some time and now I'm over here.

"And I was away for college for three years too so we have sort of been like ships in the night with each other sometimes, but we're both doing our thing and journeys are taking us different places so it's just one of those things where we might not always get to spend as much time together as we'd like.

"I had been living in Spain for four months and travelling around Europe from there before coming over here to Sydney, and I trained with a team in Spain where a friend of mine from college is playing.

"That was really fun but also a bit of a culture shock at the same time, but I got a lot of conditioning in there which was good and it was another good experience.

"I love travelling and our family has always loved to see a lot of different places so it's always been ingrained in us, and that last trip to Spain was a really important mental and body refresh for me before I came over here to Sydney and it got me ready to do that."

First couple of NBL1 East wins

As for life on the court with the Comets so far this NBL1 East season, they lost the first two games of 2026 against the Newcastle Falcons and Sutherland Sharks before a breakthrough win against the Central Coast Crusaders.

Sydney then backed it up last weekend holding out the Penrith Panthers to make it two straight and Fisher is enjoying the chance to play in a new conference where she's largely unknown.

"We were happy to get that one and it did get a bit close at the end and we were a bit nervous with that, but we pulled it up and that was a bit of a grind that game," Fisher said.

"But we're happy with that to get two wins on the board now so hopefully we can build on that now with some big tests to come.

"I'm actually loving it not knowing anyone on here because I think when you play so long in one place you almost wouldn’t even need to read a scouting anymore with everyone in Perth.

"So I've found that really refreshing walking into each game not really knowing what to expect and I think for me this was my first Round 1 I've played in three years just because of injury.

"It's been back-to-back injuries so this is the best I've ever felt and it has felt like a fresh start which has been really nice."

Big double head for Anzac Weekend

On the back of winning their last two games, the Comets have a big weekend both on Anzac Day eve and then Anzac Day itself this coming weekend.

The first up challenge is against a Bankstown Bruins team also on a 2-2 record and being boosted by the arrival of Shyla Heal before then facing the undefeated Norths Bears on Saturday with a team featuring Jaz Shelley, Issy Morgan, Caitlyn Martin and new import Tayla Brugler.

"It's going to be a big weekend and a big opportunity for us on Friday and we know we've got a lot of work to do on Shyla," Fisher said.

"Then there's Jaz Shelley and the rest of that Norths team on Saturday, and we've already had one double-header and we have another next week as well so the schedule here is something I'm still getting used to.

"They play quite a bit on Sunday which has thrown me off a little because that's different to back in the West, but it's a big test this weekend and I'm excited.

"We have played top two teams in Newcastle and Sutherland which have been our losses, and now that we've got a couple of wins under our belt it's given us confidence to go into these games this weekend.

"Hopefully we get a win on Friday and then keeping it going with Norths on Saturday."