Johny making most of Hawks' faith

Image credit: @hyperfocusimages | Michael Bailey

Johny Narkle has already earned a first career start early in NBL27 at the Illawarra Hawks after continuing to grow this past NBL1 West season at the Cockburn Cougars after his remarkable stint at home with the Geraldton Buccaneers.

Narkle was a teenager with enormous natural gifts when he first walked into the Buccaneers in 2020, and he also couldn’t decide whether to fully commit to basketball or Australian Rules.

He even had a stint with Perth-based WAFL club Subiaco in 2021, but by the time he returned to Geraldton in 2022, he knuckled down to give basketball his all and the results have been remarkable.

The faith placed in him by everyone at the Buccaneers from his coach Dayle Joseph to three-time championship winning veterans Aaron Ralph, Mat Wundenberg and Liam Hunt were instrumental, but ultimately it was Narkle's relentless hard work that has seen his rapid rise.

By 2023, Narkle inspired the Buccs to a stunning championship win and was named Grand Final MVP, then backed it up in 2024 after an early injury to deliver 21.7 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.7 steals a game on a team that lost a heartbreaking home preliminary final.

Narkle and the Buccs won another championship in 2025 when again he was Grand Final MVP in the win against the Warwick Senators at RAC Arena which led to him earning a first NBL opportunity.

He signed at the Hawks for NBL26 as a development player and found himself out on the floor for 18 games and showing that he belonged at the level including averaging 16 minutes over the last three games for 4.0 points and 4.0 rebounds.

Then Narkle challenged himself again by not returning to the comforts of home in Geraldton and with the Buccaneers, and joined the Cockburn Cougars for the 2026 NBL1 West season.

He was forced to sit out the opening six games, but once he was out there, he was spectacular and even helped Cockburn to a stunning qualifying final win in Geraldton against his former team before they lost to the Rockingham Flames in the preliminary final.

Narkle has now earned a full roster position with Illawarra for NBL27 and was thankful to the club and coach Justin Tatum for the faith they have shown in him.

"Yeah, it's just the expectations have got a lot higher being a rostered player now," Narkle said.

"And hopefully that means they get a lot more out of me this season so I'm looking forward to the rest of the games we've got coming up."

Looking back on the past 12 months or so and it's been a remarkable ride for Narkle following that 2025 championship triumph that he celebrated with the Buccaneers.

He moved to Wollongong for his first NBL season, then, when he came home, he spent the NBL1 season in Perth playing with Cockburn, and he feels that has been instrumental in his continued growth on and off the court.

"Yeah, 100 per cent I felt like just moving away from home for longer to see what it was like was important for me especially coming back from an NBL season," Narkle said.

"I felt like I had to just do my own thing and we kind of did get there as a team with how much we improved and I'm glad I did it."

Narkle coach at the Hawks, NBL25 championship winner Justin Tatum, spoke after the team's second loss of the season against the Brisbane Bullets where Narkle was a shining light.

Bullets point guard Arnas Velička was fresh off a record-setting debut and Tatum had full faith in trusting Narkle out there guarding him for the game and on a night where the Hawks lost, he was a shining light.

"Yeah, Johny came off the bench and turned us up a little bit and gave us a different lift, and gave Brisbane a different look especially Velička a little bit here and there," Tatum said.

"Then he made his opportunities on the back end by cutting and getting on the offensive rebounds.

"That's the extra effort plays you are looking for and it's something that we want out of our guys, but Johny is good at bringing that."

That led to Narkle starting for the first time in his NBL career next up on Sunday when the Hawks remained on the road to play the defending champion Sydney Kings with Tatum knowing he earned the opportunity.

"We're just trying to figure it out with our bodies right now and Johny played well in the first two games and he's a really good on-ball defenders, and we knew we were starting T-Raw (Tyler Harvey) as well in this game.

"So we were hoping that Swak and Davo would help with the bench points and things like that, which they did, and Johny has done really well in practice and the first two games so he deserved the chance to start. Johny did a really good job."

Following that game in Brisbane where Narkle's 23 minutes were the most that he's played so far in his NBL career and he scored a career-high 15 points to go with four rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal, he was happy just to do what he could to try and give the Hawks a chance to win.

"Not feeling too well because we did lose the game, but basically I feel like I'm going OK at the moment," Narkle said.

"I think as a team we just have to recap where we're at and get onto our next game to try and get things going this season.

"There's a lot more pace to it in NBL and it's a bit more relaxed in NBL1 so you can play some more minutes, so I definitely feel a lot more tired after playing a lot of NBL minutes but I'm happy to be doing it."

Already in his early NBL career and Tatum has shown the faith to throw Narkle out there to guard some of the best and most dangerous players in the league whether it's been Bryce Cotton, Kendric Davis, Chris Goulding or indeed in that Brisbane game, Velička.

Narkle has always shown that ability to make impressive defensive plays at NBL1 level too and enjoys those challenges just as much as trying to make something happen at the offensive end.

"Yeah, 100 per cent I like those challenges and it's quite an honour to guard someone like him (Velička) and having the coach's trust in me to actually do that assignment," Narkle said.

"I felt like I did OK and tried my best out there."