WNBL grand final: Inside who Perth Lynx defied the odds to make the
It is the almighty snub which has fuelled a run to the WNBL championship series. MICHAEL RANDALL dives into how the Lynx rallied to be on the cusp of ending a three-decade drought.
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All pre-season WNBL talk was about the ‘big four’.
Before a ball had been bounced in anger on the 2023-24 season, in the eyes of many, the finalists were all but set — Southside, Melbourne, Sydney and Townsville, in some order.
Over in Perth, it’s not as if coach Ryan Petrik and his revamped squad needed any extra motivation.
But they heard it all — and they didn’t like it.
“We’re zero-zero, a game hasn’t even been played, how are we already out?,” Petrik mused, on the eve of his team’s grand final opener against Southside on Sunday afternoon in Melbourne.
“You watched the (WNBL) TV intros, we’re not even in it. There’s no Perth Lynx clip, we’re an afterthought — and that’s helped the girls play with an edge this year.”
Truth be told, in the WNBL’s ‘Our Time Is Now’ season launch video, the Lynx do make one blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance — about 0.2 seconds of a trademark Amy Atwell corner three, among a smattering of last year’s champion Fire, bulk Lauren Jackson and the Flyers, with the Boomers and Flames eating up most of the rest of the screen time.
Don’t tell the Lynx, though. It’s fuel for a team that has come together as a unit with a common theme — they’ve a point to prove, collectively and individually.
You see, the last — and only — time the Perth franchise has lifted the WNBL title was way back in 1992. On that occasion, the club was known as the Perth Breakers and it took a hit-run season from legendary Opal Michele Timms and coaching great Tom Maher to deliver the goods.
Fast forward 30-odd years and unfortunately — or maybe fortunately, given they’re two wins away — there’s a daily reminder for Petrik and his squad of that frustrating drought.
The Lynx share their Bendat Basketball Centre home with the NBL’s Perth Wildcats — the nation’s most successful male basketball franchise with 10 titles.
Petrik, a development coach for five years bridging legendary Wildcats mentors Rob Beveridge and Trevor Gleeson, has been involved with the Lynx since their birth, coming up on a decade, the last four as head coach.
“Our home court is the same court the Wildcats train on so, being inside that building, you see the Wildcats all the time, you always hear the talk about how many titles they’ve won and that’s all great but every single training session we’re at, there’s one championship banner on the wall and it’s from 1992,” he said.
“When you’re in year nine of training on that court and there’s still one banner on the wall and they have 10, it does get a bit sad.
“It pisses you off and we definitely want to change that.”
PERFECT STORM
So that’s the collective goal — end the drought — but Petrik’s band of high energy sisters each has their own chip on their shoulder.
It’s no secret 2022 WNBL MVP and World Cup bronze medal Opal Anneli Maley’s break up with Bendigo was messy: “whatever happened in Bendigo, she came over with a point to prove,” Petrik said.
The 25-year-old has been a monster on the glass and a nightmare to guard as one of only two players to average a double-double this season — second in the league in rebounding at 12.5 per game to go with 11.7 points and 3.1 assists.
American guard Aari McDonald finished tied for second in the 2021 WNBA Rookie of the Year voting, improved significantly in year two but regressed in year three at Atlanta and was traded: “She’s going into a contract year and she came over here clearly wanting to get better and take that into the WNBA season — point to prove.”
McDonald would have given MVP Jordin Canada a run for her money, had she not been injured and missed eight games — without her the Lynx went 1-7. Add the fact the Dream swapped McDonald to the LA Sparks for Canada and you have the recipe for a monster who has produced a league-leading 20.7 points, 6.1 dimes (third) and 1.6 steals ready to pick apart the Flyers.
The Deadly Amy Atwell has been on the outside looking in for the Opals for too long: “She didn’t even get selected for the squad, let alone team, so she’s got a point to prove.”
The local hero is second in the league in scoring — behind McDonald at 18.6 per game and is arguably the league’s most complete scorer. She’s, by far, the WNBL’s best three-point shooter, knocking down 69 treys at a ridiculous 39 per cent and she’s better than anyone else at putting pressure on defences and getting to the free throw line — where she’s been automatic, knocking down 106 of her 124 attempts.
Masked sharpshooter Miela Goodchild made the switch from the Boomers to Perth in a bid to showcase her talent: “She was stuck on the end of the bench in Melbourne, couldn’t get on the court in finals last year, so she had a point to prove.”
Goodchild started 19 games and might have considered herself stiff not to get a look in for Break Out Player, given her scoring jumped from 6ppg to 10.
Reliable veteran Alex Ciabattoni fell pregnant and missed the 2022-23 season. She gave birth to son Elijah in January last year, and put pen to paper with Perth in June. “She didn’t get a contract offer from anyone — she’s got a point to prove.”
“Down the line, they fit really well, the pieces, because they all had and have something to prove,” Petrik said.
There’s a world where one thing goes wrong over the last week or so of the WNBL season and the Lynx aren’t even there. To finish in the top four, they had to beat Canberra — tick — go to Bendigo and knock off the Spirit on a five-game winning streak — tick — and then, in the last game of the season, hope Townsville, after back-to-back losses, rolled Sydney — tick.
So they sneak into fourth and then have to beat the reigning champion and minor premiers — tick.
THE GOAT AND THE FERR-AARI
There’s almost no form to be taken out of the three regular season meetings between Perth and Southside. The Lynx went up big, then were reeled in, losing a thriller at the start of the season without a trio of role players. They got the Flyers in Perth at Christmas — sans legend Lauren Jackson and point guard Leilani Mitchell — and then lost the season series without McDonald and Maley.
After the GOAT lit up the Boomers for 38 points and 11 rebounds in the game-three semi final win that booked Southside’s place in the big dance, plenty wondered out loud how the Lynx would stop the giant four-time Olympian.
“That game from Lauren Jackson was crazy, she is THAT good, even at that age (42), she is still incredible, that was a hell of a performance,” Petrik said.
“Everyone’s like ‘jeez, how’s Perth going to stop her?’
“Listen, we’re probably not — but how’s Southside going to stop McDonald? They’re probably not.”
“Elite players are elite for a reason.”
So, a shootout, Ryan?
He sure hopes so.
“We scored 108 points against Townsville and we averaged 101 in the series, so, even if Jackson does go for 40, they still need another 60-odd points to get what we averaged against the defending champions,” he said.
“We’ve not tried to win a game all year 55-50, we’ve tried to win every game 120-115.
“We’re very mallet-style, run it down their throat, pace and space, they’re really big, really methodical, really just going full Memphis Grizzlies, ground and pound and try to get at you at the rim.
“Neither team matches up well with each other. I’m not convinced we can guard them in the half court and I’m not convinced they can guard us in the full court.”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE LYNX?
One off-court wrinkle Petrik hasn’t given a second thought is the behind-the-scenes work Basketball WA is doing to shore up the future of the club.
It’s no secret BWA — the only state basketball body that owns and runs a WNBL club — has been looking for a potential buyer over the past 12 months but Petrik’s been there, done that — twice.
“Without a word of lie, I haven’t even thought about it,” he said.
“I’ve gone through it (ownership change) a few times. I was there day one when the Wildcats bought the West Coast waves off Basketball WA, I was there five years later when they handed the licence back to BWA, and now, four years later, here we are again, so I’m a little bit numb to it. It doesn’t stress or phase me too much.”
Recently appointed chief executive Nathan Cave said BWA was continuing to explore opportunities that would benefit the Lynx.
“Look, right now, we’re laser-focused on winning a grand final,” Cave said.
“But BWA has been having discussions with various entities. If an entity made itself known (that it was interested in the licence) and, in the view of Basketball WA, it’s something that would be for the betterment of the Perth Lynx, then we’re a matured enough organisation to have a look at that and look at how, potentially, the program would be benefited.”
THE UNSUNG HERO
Every sporting club has one special person who goes above and beyond and, speaking with Code Sports on International Women’s Day, Cave singled out operations manager Samantha Macpherson as the unsung hero in the Lynx’s fairytale run to the grand final.
“Mate, she personifies sports management excellence,” Cave said.
“Samantha has, with obviously some assistance from Ryan, put the team together, signed the players, kept the team together.
“She’s the type of general manager and operations manager that runs about 101 concurrent tasks. One of the players will call her because the Wi-Fi doesn’t work at one of the player houses, at the same time a flight’s cancelled, at the same time there’s a player who is sick or injured, at the same time she’s holding one of the player’s babies in her left arm while she’s on her phone in her right arm.
“Unless you’re involved in women’s sport, you don’t see this.
“We run on a shoestring and it’s people like Samantha who enable the whole sport.
“I’ve come from a corporate background but seeing a manager of her calibre is pretty rare.
“We have an amazing team with amazing talent but, unless you’ve got someone like that who pulls everything together for the team, the team pulls apart.”
Let the games begin.
WNBL Grand Final: Southside Flyers (2nd) v Perth Lynx (4th)
Best-of-three series
Game One: Sunday, March 10, 3.30pm AEDT, 12.30pm AWST, Melbourne Sports Centres, Parkville
Game Two: Thursday, March 14, 9.30pm AEDT, 6.30pm AWST, Bendat Basketball Centre
Game Three (if required): Sunday, March 17, 5pm AEDT, 2pm AWST, Melbourne Sports Centres, Parkville ***Time could change, depending on NBL Grand Final.
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Originally published as WNBL grand final: Inside who Perth Lynx defied the odds to make the
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