Symons maintains faith in what Eagles can do

Image credit: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

Just making NBL1 West finals won't be enough to satisfy East Perth Eagles coach Tim Symons and he remains buoyant on what him is capable of, but he knows they can't look beyond the Eastern Suns this Saturday.

The Eagles women are currently sitting in seventh position in the NBL1 West standing with three weeks and three games of the season remaining, and Symons know they can't afford to look too far ahead.

East Perth started the season winning seven of the first nine games only to have now lost six of the past eight, and while there might be some reasoning for that, Symons isn’t interested in excuses.

Emma Clarke now hasn’t played the last four matches and has only been available for three appearances all season while Madi Torresin continues to battle bravely, but is being significantly hampered by a back injury.

Sasha Goodlett, Abby Cubillo and Awatea Leach have been doing all they can with support especially from Tessa Morrison, Taylor Roberts and Ari van Vliet with the Eagles now still having their playoff destiny in their own hands.

With three games to go at home to the Eastern Suns and then away to the Perry Lakes and Joondalup Wolves with one win likely to be enough to guarantee a playoff return while three wins and they could rise up the table too.

Symons remains confident of what his Eagles team is capable of when at their best, but right now he knows all they can focus on is performing strongly in the last home game of the season this Saturday against Kalamunda.

"No, just making finals isn’t enough for us to be satisfied with," Symons said.

"The game plan was totally different and we sat through the strategy piece and had belief with the group we put together, and still stand by this to this day regardless of results.

"There were games like against Cockburn and Perry Lakes where we just didn’t front up but we're a top four team when we are playing how we should.

"At the end of the day, I put the challenge out to every one of the teams in the league that if we perform for four quarters how we should, and have everyone available, we could win this.

"It's great to get some accolades with the lift of East Perth into hopefully at least the top eight, but we just have to take it week by week give our last seven or eight games," he added.

"It's all about trying to get this group to click at the right time and I'm a great believer in past predictors where you can win this from eighth, and we've proven that as a club. If we have to try to win this from eighth, challenge accepted."

Looking back to last Friday night also at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre, and Symons was disappointed his team didn’t come out with the fire or execution he was expecting given what was at stake against the Lakeside Lightning.

Lakeside built a 16-point lead by early in the fourth term before East Perth did start playing better and produced 31 points in the fourth quarter with Symons wondering where that type of output was the rest of the evening.

"That last quarter was exactly how we were meant to play the whole game with up in the grill defence, full-court pressure and making them prone to turn the ball over which we know they do," Symons said.

"There's particular targets and I know Utley talks about this, every team has a turtle who sticks their neck out and those are the ones you attack. There's not many at Lakeside that you won't attack from the perimeter and when it becomes a bit of turmoil, we tend to play outside of what we want to do.

"It's simple things like our sideline out of play set which has worked for us for a fair bit, but we started to shitting an egg when they blew that up.

"That fourth quarter was how we know we can play basketball and if I wind the clock back to those first five weeks, we were tenacious, prepared to put our bodies on the line and to put each other on the line.

"That's dissipated since then but I wouldn’t say we're lost and there's just a wall I hope I can crack down before we start finals."

While Symons is making the best out of what he does have to work with now for the rest of the season with the Eagles, there's also that part of him that can't help but think what might have been had Emma Clarke been more available and if Madi Torresin was closer to 100 per cent health.

"If I look back on the style of play that it gave me with Sasha, having the ability to give her break and going with Madi and Emma would have made a huge difference," Symons said.

"Whether that was foul trouble or she just needed a break, if I put Emma Clarke and Madi in the four-five spots, and then ran my standard three in the five transition game, I don’t think there's a team that could match us up.

"We'd have enough height still, we'd have weapons on the court that can shoot the three ball, and it just hasn’t been there.

"Whilst there are no excuses we'll make, there is a frustration of not having that full group to see the potential we can realise is there because it's exciting to think of what it could have looked like."

Speaking of Torresin, one thing Symons can never question is her heart and her 100 per cent commitment to the team.

That's why despite the pain she is playing through, she was still out there for 29 minutes last Friday night against Lakeside and even the week before that she still made the trip to Kalgoorlie with the team just in case she was feeling able to step onto the floor.

"The kid's got heart, you have to give her that. She came around at East Perth the first time and the club was left having to back the coach or Madi, and I don’t mind saying it now that we backed the wrong person," Symons said.

"Madi is the sort of person who will live, die and abide by the club and put herself at risk even if she might jeopardise the next job she has lined up. That's why she is such a great teammate and missing Madi has been hard for us at times.

"Even when she came to Kalgoorlie, I did look to her when we were battling and it wasn’t our plan to play her, but when she stretched up she just had to tell me she couldn’t go.

"I really feel for her because she wants to play, but I don’t want to be a coach who keeps putting their imports out there and bleeds them to death or puts them at risk.

"You have to understand when no is no and you really are starting to see the injuries mount right around the league. You even have to feel for someone like Chloe Forster and I would have her as the MVP of the league without a shadow of a doubt."