East Perth Eagles

Background

Basketball in East Perth began in 1946 with the formation of the Western Australian Basketball Association. As a founding member of the association, the organisation was originally known as the Youth Catholic Workers (YCW) Highgate Basketball Club. In 1948, they were renamed Highgate Basketball Club. Premiership success eluded Highgate for the first ten years, but in the years afterwards, a total of 35 Premierships were won at various levels of Western Australian basketball.

In 1956, along with YMCA (Perth), Highgate was a founding member of the Women's Division of the Western Australian Basketball Association.

In 1972, Highgate Basketball Club was given the task of combining all local basketball clubs in the East Perth Football Club's broad catchment area to form a 'District' Club. The organisation was subsequently renamed North Eastern Suburbs Basketball Association (NESBA), but later changed the name in 1975 to East Perth District Basketball Association (EPDBA) to more accurately reflect the organisation's origins and the area represented.

In the women's District competition, EPDBA won four consecutive championships between 1977 and 1980, a feat not matched by any other women's District or SBL team. The women's team contested six consecutive Grand Finals from 1976 to 1981 and fell short of winning their fifth consecutive Grand Final by only four points. Meanwhile, the men's team won three District titles in 1980, 1983 and 1988.

Dismal first 21 years (1989–2009)

1989 saw the formation of the State Basketball League (SBL) with both a men's and women's competition. East Perth, trading as the Eagles, entered a team into both the MSBL and WSBL. Both the men and women struggled to find their ground in the SBL despite coming off success in the now-defunct District competition in the years leading up to 1989. The inaugural SBL season saw the men finish with a 12–10 record, while the women finished with a 14–7 record, both qualifying for the playoffs. However, with the 1990s came dismal records for the Eagles.

Between 1990 and 1999, the women's team failed to set a winning season, finishing under .500 every year. During this time, they went 0–20 in 1993 and 0–24 in 1998, and even sat out the 1996 season. The men's team did not favour much better, as they set a winning record just once during the 1990s—a 13–11 season in 1998.

Things got even worse for the club with the turn of the century, with both the men and women recording losing seasons every year between 2000 and 2009. With the conclusion of the 2009 season, the Eagles men had amassed an overall record of 150 wins and 362 losses (.293 winning percentage), while the women had amassed an overall record of 78 wins and 356 losses (.180 winning percentage).

On the rise (2010–2013)

In 2010, the club's fortunes took a turn for the better with both teams recording winning seasons. The women had their best season since 1989 with a 14–8 record, good for fifth place, while the men had their best season since 1998 with a 13–13 record, good for eighth place. Things got even better for the women in 2011 as they finished with a club-best 17–5 record and a third-place finish, the highest any Eagles team has ever finished on the ladder. They made a startling playoff run which resulted in the club's first SBL Grand Final appearance. There they faced two-time defending champions, the Willetton Tigers, and in a tough battle, they were beaten in the dying seconds of the game when Tigers' co-captain Kate Malpass scored a vital two-point field goal to lift the Tigers to a 72–71 victory, as the Eagles fell just short of their first SBL championship. In 2011, the men also had another winning season, finishing in eighth spot with a 15–11 record.

Season 2012 saw the rise of the men's team, and a drop off for the women. Coming off their grand final defeat in 2011, the Eagles women fell to eighth place in 2012 with a 10–12 record. The men, on the other hand, pushed themselves up the ladder to finish in fourth place with a team-best 16–10 record. Much like the women did in 2011, the men pushed through the playoffs to defeat the Mandurah Magic in the quarter-finals, and then miraculously defeated the defending champion Wanneroo Wolves in the semi-finals to move on to their first SBL Grand Final. There they faced the Cockburn Cougars, a team trying to win their first title in 20 years. The Eagles kept in the game early thanks to Tom Jervis, Jarrod Balcombe and Joe-Alan Tupaea, but the Cougars were too strong in the second half, running out the game to set the largest winning men's grand final margin at 33 points with a 105–72 win. The Eagles had now lost two grand finals in two years, but had strung together three promising seasons and started a winning culture.

In 2013, the men's teams continued to build on their 2012 grand final appearance, while the women had a disastrous fall from grace as they finished on the bottom of the ladder with a dismal 1–21 record. In contrast, the men finished in fourth place again with a 15–11 record, but were defeated in the semi-finals by eventual champions the Lakeside Lightning.

First Championship (2014)

The 2014 season saw the Eagles men put together a challenging line-up with the off-season addition of point guard Kyle Armour and the mid-season acquisition of Perth Wildcats' injured swingman Mathiang Muo. The Eagles' connection with the Wildcats stemmed from head coach Adam Forde, an assistant coach at the Wildcats. A number of the long-time Eagles players had Wildcats connections including Tom Jervis, Sunday Dech and captain Drew Williamson. These three, along with Armour and Muo, were accompanied by club stalwarts John Taylor and Joe-Alan Tupaea, and Austin Kisselev and Nikola Donlagic. While an impressive unit with Tom Jervis in the line-up, the Eagles were up and down during the regular season, but showed that their best form could match it with any side in the competition. The Eagles got things going towards the end of the season, going on a four-game winning streak before losing their last two games to the Perth Redbacks and the Cockburn Cougars to end up finishing in seventh position with a 14–12 record.

The Eagles' quarter-final opponent was second-seeded Rockingham, and while the Flames lost just nine games during the regular season, two of those came against East Perth, leading to suggestions that the match-up may not be so one-sided. Those suggestions turned out to be so with the Eagles storming past the Flames with a 2–1 series win, as they moved on to face the third-seeded Perth Redbacks in the semi-finals. They went on to sweep the Redbacks 2–0 and moved on to the Grand Final for just the second time in team history. In a daunting task, they were met in the grand final by the 2014 minor premiers, the Geraldton Buccaneers. The poise of NBL championship winners helped guide the Eagles in the do-or-die grand final, with Tom Jervis, Sunday Dech and Drew Williamson having all tasted NBL championship success with the Wildcats. The Eagles came out strong in the first half and held the lead all game, as they were able to withstand a spirited Geraldton fight back in the second half to win 99–83. Club legend, John Taylor, came on with 39 seconds left to score three points in his final game for East Perth, while Joe-Alan Tupaea claimed his fifth SBL championship and was named Grand Final MVP for his 14 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.

Rebuild (2015–present)

Following what was a fairytale season for the Eagles men in 2014, the 2015 season saw most of the championship roster move on, leaving the team with Drew Williamson, Sunday Dech, Joe-Alan Tupaea and new Wildcat Rhys Vague to pick up the slack. Point guard Kyle Armour returned to Willetton, while Mathinag Muo joined the Goldfields Giants. To make matters worse, Tom Jervis was for the first time not a consistent presence for the Eagles in 2015, managing just one game, deciding instead to rest during the NBL off-season. Key role players Austin Kisselev and Nikola Donlagic also departed the Eagles, leaving Adam Forde with a depleted roster. The Eagles subsequently stumbled through the regular season, and half way through the campaign, Forde stepped aside for personal reasons, leaving Tupea to take on a player-coach role for the rest of the season. The Eagles went from champions in 2014 to second last in 2015, finishing with a 7–19 record.

In light of the men's season, the women showed signs of improvement in 2015 following their 2–20 effort in 2014. Coach Narelle Henry did a tremendous job with the women in 2015, guiding the team to being a genuine playoff threat up until the final round. They finished the season with an 8–14 record to end up just one game out of eighth position.

A 12-game stint from Tom Jervis is 2016 saw the Eagles men return to a playoff threat, but they ultimately missed out on eighth spot by one game, finishing the year with a 10–16 record. The women, meanwhile, returned to cellar dwellers in 2016—they finished with an equal-worst record of 2–20, but managed to avoid last place on the ladder thanks to a slightly higher percentage than the South West Slammers.