Mackenzie thriving as Cougars embrace excitement

Featured image: @tomreesmedia

His move to Cockburn Cougars has helped Rowan Mackenzie take his game to a new level this NBL1 West season especially at the defensive end on a team playing an exciting brand as they try to match the success of their women's team.

Whether it's as a playmaking point guard, a dynamic and dangerous scorer and shooter or now with his ever-improving defence alongside 324-game veteran Seva Chan in the back court, Mackenzie remains one of the elite guards in the NBL1 West.

Why he hasn’t received an NBL opportunity remains one of the great mysteries, but all the 26-year-old can do is continue to shine and that's exactly what he is now doing in a first season with the Cougars to be instrumental in them currently sitting in fourth position with two rounds remaining.

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Mackenzie made the bold call to move on from Lakeside where he'd played 125 SBL/NBL1 West games up to the end of 2025 to be one of a host of big-time Cougars signings for 2026 including Johny Narkle, Akeem Springs and Joe Bradshaw.

Things are now coming together well with Mackenzie shining with 20.9 points, 4.5 assists and 4.3 rebounds a game while shooting 55 per cent from the field and a dazzling 49 from the outside.

On top of that, Cockburn are sitting fourth and following the lead of their women's team who are on the hunt of a fourth straight Grand Final in 2026.

"I think obviously I feel very lucky and grateful to be part of a club and team like this that's going as well as it has this year both the girls and guys," Mackenzie said on The Hoop Hour on 91.3 SportFM.

"I think we're just super excited and have put ourselves in a good spot even with the ins and outs that we had throughout the start of the season, and then bringing in a relatively new team together.

"I think we play pretty exciting and pretty hard, and we're primed for a good finals series to see how we go."

The men trying to join women with success

For a long time it was the Cockburn men as the standard bearers at Wally Hagan Stadium with championships in 1992, 2012 and 2016, and reaching Grand Finals in 1993, 1998 and 2003.

That was all before the women's team ever really were in contention, but they have now played in the past three Grand Finals for championships in 2023 and 2025, and currently sit in top spot again in 2026 at 15-2.

What that does for Mackenzie and the Cougars men is only make them strive to want to be as successful as what they are seeing in the women's program. The feeling at Cockburn right now with their combined 28-8 record for the season couldn’t be better right now.

"I guess seeing the girls' success is really cool and they've done a really good job and been super successful for a few years now, and even this year they're continuing on so they kinda set the tone I guess when you get ready for our games and see they're up 20 points week in, week out," Mackenzie said.

"It just sets the barometer and tone for us, but the boys have done a good job top to bottom just of wanting to be better and investing into their bodies and into time in the gym and doing extracurricular work.

"I'm really proud of the group we've got just with the level of buy in and how serious they're all taking it. It helps a lot and seeing the girls being so successful kinda drives us and wants us to want to be as successful."

Making the move from Lakeside

Given how Mackenzie grew up playing with Lakeside, made his SBL debut with the Lightning back in 2017 when he was still just 17 and then came back to play with them after college, at least if he was playing in the NBL1 West he never imagined doing it anywhere else.

But then by the end of 2025 after he had a huge finish to the season to almost will Lakeside into the playoffs, he felt like a fresh start.

He liked what the Cougars were trying to build with the added benefit of it being just down the road.

"Nothing bad to say about Lakeside, I love the club, love the people there who are amazing, but I just think from my ability to grow and develop in different ways, I thought it would be the best move selfishly for me," Mackenzie said.

"Playing against them obviously felt a bit awkward and different, but it was a great game and they beat us on the buzzer unfortunately.

"I'm still super close to all those guys and they're great guys, I have nothing bad to say about them, I just think selfishly for me it was about wanting to become the best version of myself and push myself the best that I could."

Being versatile as a guard

Right throughout his career whether firstly as a teenager and then post-college with Lakeside, or indeed at Lubbock Christian University, and then a season under Stephen Black in the NBL1 South at the Bendigo Braves, Mackenzie has been tremendously versatile as a guard.

There's been times where he has proven to be an outstanding playmaking point guard including averaging 7.0 assists back in 2023 at the Lightning or times he has proven what a lethal three-level scorer he can be including a best of 22.9 points back in that same Lakeside season.

He's always shown an ability to hit the clutch shots too including a stunning game winner when he was at Bendigo at in 2024. But what he's taken pride in is how versatile he is and how he's continued to grow with his pressure defence now the big growth area in 2026.

"I feel as though I've played a bit more off the ball this year and with the way we pressure up the court and make the other team work, that's one of the biggest growth areas for me to be able to pick up full court," Mackenzie said.

"Understanding where my strengths lie has meant playing a bit more two and three this year mixing in the one absolutely every now and then, but I think I've just enjoyed the shuffling around of pieces and figuring out different spots to be aggressive.

"It's a pretty interchangeable offence that we have one through four for us so figuring out new ways and a new system is always good fun, and finding new ways to score and to create people.

"This year, though, I have just loved the intensity and detail that we've put into defence and trying to speed up other teams and I guess push them to show us what they're made of kinda thing."

Johny not being right to face the Buccs

Going back to last week and there was great hype surround the Cougars match up against the Geraldton Buccaneers on Saturday night at Wally Hagan Stadium with the potential of Johny Narkle taking on his former side for the first time.

He was yet to be cleared early in the season when Mackenzie inspired the Cougars to the win in Geraldton with 33 points and six assists.

However, Narkle was unwell coming back from playing with the Indigenous Basketball Australia All Stars in Cairns last week, tried to play in Bunbury on Friday night to no avail and then was so ill he couldn’t make it to Wally Hagan Stadium on Saturday night.

Even though the Cougars couldn’t quite complete the job being overrun by the Buccs, Mackenzie and his team still took a lot from it with Narkle along with Josh Hunt to come into that side.

"I think Johny as much as anyone would have loved play and he's never going to turn down a basketball game as sick as he was," Mackenzie said.

"He still showed up and went all the way to Bunbury and played as hard as he could for a couple of minutes but when you're not right, you're not right.

"He obviously woke up the next morning and didn’t feel great and not having him there was a bit of a bummer, and I know he and the Geraldton boys would have been excited to play each other.

"But I think we still gave them a fair crack and I guess just ran out of some steam and they're a well-oiled machine, and just have a bunch of winners who know how to win when push comes to shove. It was still a pretty exciting game and I was pretty happy to be a part of that one."

Big game against Perry Lakes

Having lost three of their first four games of the season, the Cougars have been outstanding since winning 12 of the last 15 to be sitting in fourth position with two games of the regular season to go.

That sees them away to the Perry Lakes Hawks this Friday night and then the East Perth Eagles next Friday where just one more win should lock away a top four finish and possibly even a return clash with Geraldton where Narkle might finally get to face his old side.

But first things first, Mackenzie knows the challenge ahead this week with a Perry Lakes team featuring Jack Browder, Cam Huefner and Isaiah Moses on Friday night at Bendat Basketball Centre.

"Hats off to them, they've been playing super well the last couple of weeks whether that's the changing courts or what, I don’t know what's got into them, but they're healthy and dangerous," Mackenzie said.

"They can shoot it, they've got a lot of freedom within their offence and that Jack Browder guy is a freak.

"I think he's putting up 30 points a game and which is ridiculous and I don’t think he's had a game under 20 so it might not be about stopping him, but making him work as hard as he can for his buckets. They're a versatile team as well so it should be a good match up."