Rendulic to cherish record but success the focus

Featured image: Eric Paul Goldie

Being coach when Anneli Maley made history is something that Tim Rendulic will always look back on fondly, but given the amount of his life he's spent with the Perth Redbacks it's an NBL1 West championship that is his driving force.

Rendulic played all 184 of his SBL games with the Redbacks before also starting his coaching journey at the club as an assistant to Keith Horwood before he continued to cut his teeth elsewhere.

He made the move to the Joondalup Wolves and as an assistant to Charles Nix, was part of the West Coast Classic championship of 2020 and then the NBL1 West Grand Final of 2021 before receiving his first head coaching opportunity with the Eastern Suns.

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A chance to then return home to the Redbacks presented in 2024. He's now in his third season coaching the Redbacks and last Friday night's first win of the season against the Willetton Tigers at Belmont Oasis is a night anyone in attendance, or who watched, won't forget any time soon.

Fresh off playing in China, Maley made her return to the Redbacks. It will be her lone appearance at least for now too while she is at a WNBA training camp with the New York Liberty and what an impression she left.

She set not only the NBL1 scoring record nationally, but also an all-time women's SBL/NBL1 West record with 65 points on 21/29 shooting from the field, 4/7 from downtown and 19/21 at the foul line to go with 17 rebounds and five assists.

It broke the NBL1 national record of Elijah Pepper from last year and the women's record of Riley Lupfer that was 55 last year too with the Albury Wodonga Bandits, and surpassed the 60 SBL points scored by Fiona Hannan in 1994.

Rendulic feels that the longer her record now stands, the more it will be cherished by everyone that was there to witness it and play their part.

"I think at the time between myself and the coaching staff we honestly had no idea she was sort of travelling at that sort of strike rate and heading for that sort of number," Rendulic said on The Hoop Hour on 91.3 SportFM.

"I think we were more tied up in the third quarter capitulation that we had at the time and trying to navigate that, but it's certainly one of those things where you reflect on it more as time goes by and we'll appreciate it a lot more.

"We might be a bit hard pressed to sort of see it again any time again soon as well so it was a very unique situation as a coaching staff even though we did obviously acknowledge that she was having a heater to say the least.

"But to look back at the end of the game and hear that she'd actually nailed 65 points, it was extraordinary is probably the only way to put it."

What coaching Redbacks means

While Rendulic enjoyed the front row seat he had to Maley's showing last Friday night, in the bigger picture all he has ever wanted to do is be part of a championship with the Redbacks.

He didn’t quite get that during his playing career with the team of 2017 triumphant just two years after he had stopped playing and joined the women's coaching staff.

Then after cutting his teeth in a coaching sense with the Wolves and Suns before the homecoming to coach the Redbacks women in 2024, and now having playoff runs the past two seasons, that's where his sole focus is.

"From a coaching capacity and being able to start there, and then go away and now come back to try and build the culture that I felt like the women's program deserved after seeing what we tried to do when Keith was head coach, it's really special," Rendulic said.

"It's something I certainly don't take for granted and I come in every day knowing that I'll always do the right thing by the club.

"They've done the right thing by me and have supported me wholeheartedly which has been equally fantastic, and my whole driving force is to repay that by trying to win a championship.

"That's all I ever wanted to do and be a part of when I was a player, and I stopped two years before they got to that.

"If I can repay the faith for all the people I've met and the help I've had by getting that championship, and doing it with a group that we have, then that's my driving force with this staff and playing group.

"I would love nothing more than to repay the club with something like a championship."

Allowing her to play her game

Given Maley didn’t arrive too long before having to suit up last Friday night after her stint in China following the WNBL Grand Final run she was part of at the Perth Lynx, Rendulic didn’t necessarily have much time or a need to come up with anything to help her fit in.

Part of that was because she'd played under him with the Redbacks the past two seasons so she was already familiar with the system, but more to the point with her remarkably diverse skill set, the best thing a coach can do is just to let her play in a way that allows her to thrive.

"With the way she plays, obviously we do what we can to enable players to play to their strengths and she's this really unique player who is really hard to scout for, and you can't replicate what she does because she's essentially a hybrid point forward," Rendulic said.

"She can fly through and clean up the glass, and then push the ball up the floor for you which you just can't find players in Australia anyway with that sort of size that can do that at such an efficient rate.

"She's strong like a Chibba (Alex Ciabattoni) when she takes contact in the paint but she can carry the ball down the floor at a rapid rate like a Chloe Forster.

"It's very rare to see players have the combination of that, and obviously it's a core focus of understanding that her game is to sweep in and clean the glass, and then getting the ball downhill and create off of that.

"Then it just becomes a spacing game because she's very good at finding and facilitating too. It's just about allowing her to play her game and understand the way she wants to play and where she's at her best, and then you can basically position players and structures around her.

"She's just so effective and criminally with her IQ as well about reading the play as it happens."

Being the coach for historic moment

While Rendulic isn’t naïve to think that him being the head coach while Maley created history means much to anyone, or even that he necessarily played much of a role outside putting her in a position to do it, but it's something he'll always look back on fondly.

Rendulic himself is a great student of history of the league and has spent his entire life involved in one way or another as a player or coach over the past 20 years so he has a great understanding of where Maley's performance sits – and always will.

"It's obviously nice to say you were there and a part of it, but I've always said it's about the players and everyone else, and no one is going to remember who coached the 65-point game at the end of the day," Rendulic said.

"As time passes, though, I think everyone will look back on that game a lot more fondly more than they are now, and it's great that it's getting the attention that it does.

"But as time progresses we'll all be able to reflect on it and the longer it goes where nobody potentially comes near that record too, you'll understand the magnitude of how big an effort it was on her behalf.

"She's just such a super player where she can go out and do that, and we've got some insanely talent scorers and athletes in this league like Stacey Barr who had the record prior to her, and it's no mean feat putting up 50 points let alone 65 so I don’t think you'll find too many people who can do it.

"And not many teams who will let you do it so it's something we'll be really proud of and I hope as a club that's something that as time goes by they're able to celebrate and lean into as well that they were part of such a historic milestone."

Now dealing without Maley again

The Redbacks were expecting to have Maley for an extended stint once she returned from China last week, but as it turns out it could very well be her lone appearance for the season.

That's all dependant on how her training camp goes with the Liberty of the WNBA, but for Maley's sake after a host of near misses in similar situations over the years, it will be a moment to celebrate should she earn a roster spot for the 2026 season.

While from a Redbacks point of view if that doesn’t happen and she's able to return at some point this season they'll be more than happy to welcome her, Rendulic is focused on now having a blanket approach in picking up the slack without her to try and build some winning form.

"It certainly changes the dynamic when someone comes in and then departs so quickly as well, but it doesn’t change our structures around what we're doing and we're really fortunate to have picked up Sam Ashby in the off-season," Rendulic said.

"She's arrived now and got her first game in on the weekend after finishing up in Germany, and she's a superstar player in terms of being a local. We'll really need her to take on a bit of that slack from a scoring capacity which is something she can do, and then it's by committee really.

"Sophie Doran's got the keys at the point at the moment and she's been a really good pairing with Liv Berry who's an established player in this league that knows how to score points as well.

"Shenae Hartree has really stepped up and we expect big things of her, and she's holding the fort until Patty Brossmann arrives.

"Another player who's been underrated or has flown under the radar is Ella Barmentloo who had two really stellar games to start the season for someone who is 18 years of age, and she has a really dynamic skill set where she can rebound and run the ball.

"But she's a legit six-foot wing who can stretch the floor, finish under the bucket and give us a lot defensively. We'll look for a whole bunch of people to fill the void."

This weekend's challenges

After already playing the unbeaten reigning champion Cockburn Cougars, having a trip south to take on the Slammers and playing perennial contenders Willetton, the challenges keep coming early in the season for the Redbacks.

They play the Cougars for a second time already at Wally Hagan Stadium on Saturday after hosting the other Grand Final team of last year, the Warwick Senators, on Friday.

They will be doing so without Maley as well and Rendulic is fully aware of the pair of challenges ahead, but is looking forward to seeing how his team handles the tests.

"That's pretty much as tough a double-header as you can possibly get and I think certainly we've had a tough first month of the season," Rendulic said.

"We're playing some really talented teams, but the core focus is obviously preparing for Warwick on the Friday night and that's where we're sending our attention with the players, but as a coaching staff we'll focus on both and everything ready to go.

"We just need the players locked in on correcting our deficiencies that played a part last Friday against Willetton especially in the third quarter while preparing for a new dynamic against Warwick who have a really talented contingent.

"I would argue they have the best back court in the league between Forster and Jayda Clark who both get downhill, can shoot and stretch the floor, and are super talented players.

"Then you pair them up with (Mackenzie Clinch) Hoycard, Nat Burton who is defying time to be as good as ever, and a couple of young players like Kyana Weir who are making a name for themselves.

"They give you a whole bunch of problems and you add in an Izzy Miotti who glue it all together and they are a tough out any week," he added.

"It will take a really locked in effort to get over the top of them and then to back it up with a Cockburn team that hasn’t lost in well over 12 months is no easy feat either but at least the players know what to expect having played them already in Round 1 so I'd like to think we'll be a bit more prepared against them this time.

"It's going to be a tough weekend but we're excited for it as well."