BEN Ettridge has known the majority of his Joondalup Wolves players since they were junior basketballers and there's no group he would rather be taking into the 2016 SBL finals as they attempt to become the first Men's club to win back-to-back titles since 2008.

No team has won consecutive SBL Men's championships since the Goldfields Giants in 2007 and 08 on the back of the Lakeside Lightning doing the same in 2005 and 06, the Perry Lakes Hawks winning four straight from 2001-04 and prior to that the South West Slammers taking out five in six years.

So consecutive titles has gone from commonplace in the first 23 seasons of the Men's SBL to have not happened at all the last seven years with the Wolves now having the chance to turn that around again over the next month.

Coming off winning last year's championship on the back of a dominant season and big grand final win over the Slammers, the Wolves ended up finishing in second spot at the end of the 2016 regular season with a 21-5 record following last Friday night's loss to the Cockburn Cougars.

That sees the Wolfpack set up a quarter-final match up with the Perth Redbacks starting this Saturday night at Joondalup Basketball Stadium.

Cougars prevail over Wolves as top spot battle delivers 

Ettridge has already coached the Wolves to two SBL championships and is experienced enough to not read anything into finishing first or second, but what matters now is the Redbacks and ensuring they remain unbeaten at home this year.

The Wolves have won their last 26 games at home with the last loss coming on April 12 last year to the Geraldton Buccaneers.

"It makes no difference in the end whatsoever finishing first and second. For us we have been there and done that. In 2012 we finished 23-3 and got bundled out by the eventual winner so the real season starts now. The next four weeks is what you're all about," Ettridge said.

"We'll got into this weekend on our home court where we haven’t lost all season and only dropped one last year ready to go. That's where we like to play and we have great fans to play in front of so we're really looking forward to that."

The Wolfpack have just the one import this season after the departure of Bobby Evans and with Greg Hire now being unrestricted after reaching 150 games in the SBL.

That is a source of pride for Ettridge to have had his disposal a group that outside of Kevin Davis are long-time Wolves products and in the case of many of those players he has helped them develop since they were juniors.

"Other teams sometimes look at us as having the biggest budget in the league, but we don't. we operate under the same salary cap as everyone and we operate with the same import restrictions," he said.

"I taught six or seven of these boys when they were 13 or 14 years of age Woodvale Senior High School and took them away in touring teams and everything. Then we have Reece Maxwell, Rhys Smyth, Greg Hire and Sean Easther, and previously we've had Rhys Langford, Reece Easther and they are all boys I've known since they were 13. They are Wanneroo kids.

"Damian Matacz is an absolute legend, and Robbie (Huntington) and Trian (Iliadis) have never played SBL for another club. We've also got Ben Ironmonger, Jordan Wellsteed, Brendan Tucek and Sam Curtis, that is the strength of us. They all come from great families and are Wolfpack through and through."

One of those players Ettridge is most proud of is Sean Easther who reached his 150-game SBL milestone last Friday night against the Cougars.

"Sean Easther is not the most athletic guy, he's not the fastest guy but he has carved out a niche for himself. He will play this game for another five or six years and be a quality SBL player getting to 250 or 300 games, and I don’t think we celebrate that enough," he said.

"If this was a WAFL or AFL team, to play 250 games it takes 10 years of effort and there's only one step up from this and that's the NBL. The guys should be really proud of these milestones and it's a massive achievement.

"There's nothing wrong with being a 10-year SBL player and we do sell that short. Sean is a great guy. His family bleeds green, their dad is the barman and all his brothers referee at the club, and his mum is at every home and away game. They epitomise what this level of basketball is all about it – it's a family organisation."

Given that he himself has been away at times this season due to his commitments ahead of the Paralympic Games with the Australian Rollers and Ben Ironmonger and Evans saw their seasons end early, and Matacz, Hire, Joel Questel and Iliadis have all missed games along the way, Ettridge couldn't be happier with the Wolves' regular season.

To still perform so well and be only one game off top spot with a target on their head as defending champions has him feeling as good as could be entering another finals campaign.

"We've done a really job this year of dealing with a lot of our injuries and people leaving the team in-house and managing that," Ettridge said.

"We've had our ups and downs like everyone else. We've had to add new guys and some guys have left the team, we've lost games and won games, and coaches have been away.

"Over the last seven or so weeks we've been as consistent as you can be though. To be where we are now, we are as ready as we want to be."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Mick Cronin