Milestone lets Beard reflect on how Rockingham has grown

The Rockingham Flames have come so far on and off the court in the NBL1 West but keeping local stars part of the journey is crucial and that's why it means so much for Justin Beard to be about to celebrate playing 200 games.

Beard began his then SBL career at the Flames back in 2014 and never could he imagine what things would look like with Rockingham if you fast forward to 2023.

All of a sudden, he is a key member on a team that is fresh off winning the NBL1 West and National Championships, they are again sitting on top of the table this season and they continue to be the hottest event and organisation in Rockingham.

Beard has been through plenty with the Flames and done it all with the support of his parents while playing much of his career with brothers Kyle and Callum, and now reaches 200 games this Saturday night on the road to the Lakeside Lightning.

What does it mean to reach 200 games

The Beard family is a massive part of basketball in Rockingham. Justin's parents were longstanding volunteers before any of their sons began playing with the Flames and since they have started, have been the biggest supporters of their children.

For Beard to have been able to share the journey with his parents such big parts of the club and to play with brothers Kyle (128 games, 2014-19) and Callum (121 games, 2016-current) is what makes it special.

For him to now reach a 200-game milestone this Saturday night away to Lakeside but then celebrate it at home next Friday night against the team that might be this Rockingham team's great rivals, the Perry Lakes Hawks, means the world to Beard and his family.

"I think they will be pretty proud of me, they are usually pretty proud of reaching milestones or when we achieve something," Beard said.

"They know the amount of effort I've put into my basketball and I think mum's already talked about bringing some of the family down so they are looking forward to it I think.

"I think having mum and dad at the club as volunteers for so long and obviously playing with my two brothers, it kind of is a big moment and the club was such a big part of my childhood growing up. 

"It was almost like a second home for us down there and there would always be two or three of us there at all times so it is a bit special to reach a milestone like this."

How far Rockingham has grown

Going back to 2014 when Beard was starting his SBL career and there was no way of seeing that Rockingham would grow into the powerhouse of WA basketball that it now is.

The signs were there with the success of the women's team, but the men had never really got close to the same glory and the organisation wasn’t anything like the one that it is now, and neither was the game night environment.

Under the leadership of Warren Boucaut and the strong off-court team he has built around him, the Flames now constantly pack out Mike Barnett Sports Complex with the fans fully invested and the Flames players reaching somewhat celebrity status in Rockingham.

The corporate support has followed suit and it's the hottest ticket in town and there's no way Beard saw that happening when he began playing as a teenager.

"It's like night and day to what it used to be like. When I started back in my first year we would be lucky to get 1 or 200 people down on an SBL night," he said. 

"But throughout the years you slowly see it grow and grow, and it's almost like we've gone professional now. That's what it feels like. 

"There's kids out there wanting your autograph and are asking for shoes, and I have to tell kids I'm not like the guys they see on TV, I need to use my shoes again next week. 

"People are lining up for high fives and I even go to the shops now and some people know who I am and it's just crazy with the level it's gone to here in Rockingham."

The game night atmosphere now at a Flames home game at Mike Barnett Sports Complex is something more akin to a professional sporting event than a state league one.

It might be something only similarly replicated in Geraldton or Kalgoorlie in terms of just how invested the home crowd is, and the way they fill up the grandstands now occupying both sides of the building and even the corporate boxes.

When Beard thinks back to what it used to be like 10 years ago when he started playing, he makes sure he embraces every moment.

"We all love it because we played because of how much we love the game and to have that crowd there watching us and having that same intensity and passion as we do, it's awesome," he said.

"They're with you every step of the way and screaming or oohing and aahing throughout the game. Even talking to a few of the sponsors, they came and it's the same thing, they think we are like the Wildcats and they talk about how awesome it is.

"They talk about bringing their parents and talk about how they never had been to Australia to watch basketball before, but have come over and loved it. It's crazy to see the impact it kind of has now."

Incredible team you are part of 

Going back to when Beard started his SBL career in 2014 at the Flames, it was the time where the men's team was just happy if they were competitive.

Beard had no way of knowing going back nearly a decade the powerhouse team he would soon be part of, but he's sure not complaining to be able to call Devondrick Walker, Marshall Nelson, Jeremy Combs, Tom Jervis, and of course captain Ryan Godfrey as teammates.

"I never thought I'd be on a team this stacked, not at all. The league has changed a fair bit now too with more guys moving around, but in my first few years I would say we were 70 or 80 per cent local guys just with a couple of imports to fill up the team," Beard said.

"Now we are bringing in guys from here and there, and the quality of them is just amazing. Having Devondrick is like having an NBL player, he's insane and then there's guys like Jeremy who is one of the best imports I've ever seen. 

"Then there's a guy like Marty who is NBL quality and having guys like that all on the one team is ridiculous. It makes the game easy for me for sure."

Perhaps the best part of being teammate to someone like Walker who is the reigning NBL1 West MVP and Grand Final MVP, and surely the runaway leader for the 2023 award is that Beard gets the beast seat in the house to watch him do his thing.

"Sometimes you have the best seat in the house being out on the court. You find yourself just ball watching and it's insane," he said. 

"On the weekend, he was in an iso situation and was walking through his defender what he was going to do, and he shot it. Then before the ball even went in, he was like 'oh that's crazy' and did like a Steph Curry walk back on defence before it even went in. It was nuts and that's just the type of thing only he can do."

Bringing in pair of Wildcats championship winners

The Flames have made a whole host of decisions over the last five years that have put them in the position they are now in as a powerhouse of WA basketball on and off the court.

One of the culture shifts to the men's program began with the recruitment of Greg Hire while he was still vice-captain at the Perth Wildcats which culminated in him being part of that championship success last year before he sailed off into retirement.

Hire also helped bring his Wildcats championship winning teammate Tom Jervis with him and Beard has no doubt those two signings have been instrumental in the club's growth.

"All props to Greg for sure because I think he really started bringing in that professional mentality to us," Beard said. 

"When he first came, he was still with the 'Cats and he kind of showed us what hard work was and took us from being this bunch of local kids who were playing for a bit of fun and weren’t taking it too serious, but now you base your whole week around training and the games. 

"He really showed us the extra work that you've got to put in. Then bringing in a guy like Tommy, in my opinion he's one of the best leaders I've ever played with. He doesn’t say a whole lot, but when he does say something it always has meaning to it and you find everyone really pays attention to what he has to say."

Historic success of last year

While the growth in the Rockingham organisation off the court has been stark in Beard's time playing and the game night atmosphere they create is incredible, nothing quite sums up how far they've come like the success they achieved last year.

While the Rockingham women had won championships in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2019 with the first three with Ryan Petrik as coach, success had been starved of the men's program.

They began knocking on the door back in 2018 reaching a semi-final before Petrik took over as coach in 2019, and they reached the Grand Final in 2021.

With the additions of Walker and Nelson in 2022, the Flames would go on to make history by winning a first NBL1 West championship before a week later claiming the NBL1 National Championship as well in Melbourne.

Beard was a key contributor to all of that and it meant the world to him.

"The club was kind of fully invested into winning that NBL1 West championship and all the hard work, and so much sweat and tears that went into achieving," Beard said.

"We were obviously happy with that and anything else would be kinda extra. So we went over east for that national tournament and didn’t really have too many expectations, and didn’t have Devondrick or Greg. 

"So it was actually a bit of fun with guys having to step up and play different roles, but in that first two minutes of the first game against South Adelaide, we were down 8-0 and thought we might have been on the piss a bit too long celebrating.

"But in the end it all came good and it was insane. It was crazy to be honest and it's still kind of hard to believe what we did."

Championship defence season so far

It's been a fascinating championship defence this season so far for the Flames. They did look invincible across the first eight games putting up 107 points a game, winning by an average of 19 and being unbeaten.

However, suddenly they scored just 52 points in a loss to the Perth Redbacks, then also lost to the Geraldton Buccaneers and Kalamunda Eastern Suns, and they were in the middle of a losing streak.

Since then, the Flames have got right back to some ominous form winning seven in-a-row scoring at least 103 in all of them to be averaging 116 points a night with a winning margin of 34.

You can make the case that before and after the three-game losing streak they have been a better team than the one that went on to achieve such great things last year.

"It was noted that in the first few games of the year we were winning them, but we never felt like we were playing great basketball or that we knew we could play," Beard said.

"Ryan would mention that we were winning games but there would come a point where teams would get us and eventually we lost three in-a-row and were in a bit of a rut. It took everyone to come together and talk about playing how we know we can play, move the ball and have fun. 

"It took a bit of a mindset change where we had to get a bit hungrier, and now we're back in that same mindset as last year where we're hungry to win, we want to win and we want to kill teams. We don't want to just cruise through games."

The hunger for more success as strong as ever

Championship hangovers can be a very real thing in sport, often in teams who have broken long standing droughts or made history which is what the Flames team that Beard was part of last year did.

That's clearly not the case with this Rockingham team of 2023 as they look to defend both their NBL1 West and National Championships. 

Beard has also taken note that when teams are happy to just get close to them, it's a sign of how the Flames are viewed as a powerful unit.

"What makes us hungry is that we know we're copping everyone's best hit every time they play us," Beard said.

"That stood out to us at the beginning of the season where teams were coming in and throwing everything they had at us, and there was a bit of chatter with teams being happy if they didn’t lose to us by too much and thinking they played well.

"They still lost but were happy if they didn’t lose by too much so we took that as a mark of respect for how teams saw us. It was crazy to hear teams just happy to not lose by too much and in a way that shows how far we've come because there might have been a point where we were a team that might have thought like that."