West Recap | Men's Grand Final 2025

Image credit: Michael Farnell (Sports Imagery)

Geraldton Buccaneers (81) defeated Warwick Senators (78)

The Geraldton Buccaneers now have two NBL1 West championships to show for four straight years of brilliance with Johny Narkle shining along with clamping the high-scoring Warwick Senators to win the Grand Final 81-78 at RAC Arena.

The Buccaneers lost a heartbreaking Grand Final back in 2022 after leading the Rockingham Flames most of the way before reversing that the next year to come from behind against the Joondalup Wolves and claim a third championship after previous triumphs in 2000 and 2019.

They then finished four games clear at the end of the 2024 regular season but were stunning in a home preliminary final by the Willetton Tigers, but they have now got a richly deserved championship and did it on the back of sheer heart and spirit.

Narkle was brilliant to win a second Grand Final MVP award ahead of joining the Illawarra Hawks in NBL26. He finished with 21 points, nine rebounds, four steals, three assists and three blocks, including two that were massive on Elijah Pepper.

But where the Buccs won the championship was on their trademark heart, grit and spirit. That was exemplified by Liam Hunt returning after a nasty rolled ankle to win a third championship, but it was the defensive job that is where they won it.

The Senators have been averaging 109.5 points all season but the Buccs held them to 78, While Warwick stuck to their season average of 47 three-point attempts, they only made nine of them to go at 19 per cent when they have been going at 41 per cent all of 2025.

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As a result, the Buccaneers are the toast of Geraldton once again with the club's fourth championship, second in three years and third in the last seven years with coach Dayle Joseph at the helm for all three of them.

Captain Aaron Ralph and Mat Wundenberg have been there for all three too and now have six championships between them to go with their combined 1025 games in the league.

On top of what Narkle did for Geraldton, Akeem Springs was tremendous with 21 points, four rebounds and four assists with the dynamic Verle Williams finishing with 15 points, four boards, three assists and two steals.

Even with his ankle injury and fouling out early in the fourth quarter, Hunt still had 14 points and six rebounds with Ralph knocking down two more trademark three-pointers for seven points while Joshua Keyes also had three points, seven rebounds and six assists.

The Senators will be left to wonder what went wrong runner-up MVP Elijah Pepper still scoring 33 points with eight rebounds, four steals and three assists, but he shot 11/35 from the field and 6/16 from downtown.

Mitch Clarke also had 20 points, six rebounds and four steals, Todd Withers 12 points and nine boards, and preliminary final hero Cooper Creek nine points and 10 rebounds with George Pearl contributing four points, six assists and five boards.

It was a strong start to settle the nerves from the Buccaneers with the first two scores from Liam Hunt and Johny Narkle but the Senators responded with the next seven points including a three ball from Elijah Pepper.

Cooper Creek added another triple as did Pepper for the Senators to go up four, but Geraldton battled back starting with an and-one from 2019 Grand Final MVP Liam Hunt.

Verle Williams then added seven quick points to close the quarter for the Buccaneers and on the back of that they were leading 26-18 after one.

The league's all-time leading three-point shooter Aaron Ralph then added to his tally to start the second quarter and not long after Geraldton's lead was 13 and they were helping to force Warwick into a horror shooting first half.

Pepper found Todd Withers on a couple of nice drive and dishes before half-time, but Geraldton were still up 40-33 at the break with Warwick's shooting the story of the half going 3/25 from three-point land as a team including 2/14 from Withers and Pepper combined.

It would turn out to be quite the dramatic third quarter starting with Hunt hitting a big three to stretch Geraldton's lead to eight, but soon after he suffered a nasty rolled ankle and had to be helped back to the locker room.

The Senators took advantage and scored the next seven points, but then the Buccs crowd went nuts when Hunt returned from the locker room and came back on to the court.

Geraldton were clinging to the 58-55 still by three quarter-time and the drama went up fever pitch levels in the fourth quarter.

Mitch Clarke knocked down a huge three with just over six minutes to play to level scores for Warwick, but Akeem Springs responded with a triple of his own, and then captain Ralph added another to push the lead back out to five.

It then got to eight not long after following scores to Williams and Narkle but three-pointers to Pepper and Clarke once more kept the Senators within a point heading into the last minute and the tension was building.

To add to it, Pepper received a cut on his finger and had to sub out of the game with the blood and Narkle got out to finish in transition before completing an and-one play to make it a four-point margin once more.

That's where it still was when Narkle hit two clutch free throws but Pepper gave Warwick a sniff still with his sixth triple of the night with seven seconds to go.

Springs made two free throws with 4.8 seconds off but Geraldton did a tremendous job denying Pepper the ball and Warwick weren’t able to get off a good look and the Buccs were celebrating a second championship in three years.

MEN'S NBL1 WEST GRAND FINAL 2025

GERALDTON BUCCANEERS 81 (Springs 21, Narkle 21, Williams 15)

WARWICK SENATORS 78 (Pepper 33, Clarke 20, Withers 12)