WITH Cooper Land his star, Taylor Land a playing assistant coach, Chudier Pal a strong big man presence and a group of tenacious warriors, Mark Utley could not ask for a better team to coach and he hopes to take the Rockingham Flames a long way in 2016.

The Flames finished in second position at the end of the 2014 regular season before coming up short against the eventual champion East Perth Eagles in the quarter finals and then last year they beat the Cockburn Cougars in the first round before losing to grand finalists South West Slammers.

Now in 2016, Rockingham has been able to add Pal to better match up against the true centres in the competition and have an edge inside against teams that don't while Cooper Land has continued to play at an MVP level and after being unavailable early on, Taylor Land is a crucial piece not only with his tenacity and point guard skills, but his leadership.

It's more than just those three behind Rockingham's form that currently sees them on a four-game winning run in fifth position heading into a clash this Saturday night against the East Perth Eagles at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre.

Ryan Godfrey, Jarryd Griffin, Matthew Honey, Justin Beard, Luke Roberts, Andrew Bowman and Kyle Beard are all among the players who Utley would go to war with and he has no doubt the Flames are better placed to make a run for the championship that at any other time in his coaching tenure.

"I think it's been an amazing rebuild and you look at someone like Andrew Bowman who has only come back halfway through the year. We lost Travis Moore who was our senior body, Tom Remmerswaal was our starter last year and we went out to get Chudier," Utley said.

"I used to drive him to training when he was 13 and I've taught him Yoga to keep his body in shape and now we have a legitimate five man. In games where we take on lockdown bigs like a Kevin Davis, we can win the rebounds and he is huge for us.

"We've also got flexibility in our guards as well. We can bring in Justin Beard as a four to two and we have flexibility across that whole bench. Kyle Beard is developing well and we have so much depth coming through which is what we've pushed hard the last couple of years.

"Losing Neb Franich was huge for us costing us that back up big, but with Kyle's improvement and with Justin Beard coming in, we are a better team for that and I think we can go a long way."

In the Flames' last four wins over the Goldfields Giants, Stirling Senators, Willetton Tigers and Perry Lakes Hawks, Cooper Land has been remarkable averaging 32.3 points and 11 rebounds on shooting 50-of-98 from the field, 12-of-28 from deep and 17-of-21 from the charity stripe.

The Land brothers have also enjoyed having their parents in town in recent weeks to watch them lead their team towards the playoffs. With it set to be their last year playing with the Flames, Utley wants to send them out on a winning note.

"It helps with their mum and dad here, they played for them this weekend that was obvious. But this is their last year, that's known," Utley said.

"Taylor is going back to coaching and Cooper with the visa laws can't come back as a player unless it's as a permanent resident, but he wants to start looking at his future as well and he plays on one leg every week.

"So he has said it's basically his last year as well and they want to go out on a winning note. They enjoy Rockingham, they love the club and they just want to make sure they continue to lead us as far as they can."

While Cooper has been massive, Taylor Land has been just as important as the on-court general but also averaging 14.0 points, 8.0 assists and 5.5 rebounds over the last four wins. Utley can't speak more highly of what Taylor provides in leadership on and off the floor for the Flames.

"He makes it easier for me to coach. He is my assistant coach but he has a full file like the coach out of The Waterboy of all different and bizarre plays," he said.

"He brings out his red book at training and we go through certain things. Last week we got a number of backdoors just because of Taylor Land's Henry Winkler offensive plays."

Utley looked at the last three weeks and four rounds of the regular season hoping to beat the Senators, Tigers, Hawks and Eagles thinking winning three of the four would be good, but four of four was achievable.

Now Rockingham has scored wins over Stirling, Willetton and Perry Lakes with East Perth to come and Utley is aiming to improve on last year's semi-final finish for the Flames.

"We looked at it and we thought over our last four games if we go 3-1 we will finish at 16-10, but I want to go 4-0 which would take us to 17-9," he said.

"Two years ago we finished second with a record of 17-9 so it's an open contest but we get the head to head on Stirling and Willetton now. It's now finals basketball that we are already in at the moment.

"We go into the playoffs with an experienced team that has been together three to four years, and they know how to play. We were out in the first round two years ago, we made the semis last year and we want to go a step further this year."

Utley would not change anything about his team. While the Land brothers receive a lot of the attention and Pal has been an important inclusion as a big man, it is the warriors that he just loves to coach and watch play.

Jarryd Griffin is the prime example of that and Utley hopes his whole group can make the most of the chance to achieve something special.

"I love the way they play. Jarryd Griffin is my favourite player in the SBL and there you have a guy who is six-foot at best but he's the best rebounding guard I've ever seen," Utley said.

"He is just a mad man going at the ring and I don’t give him a lot of deep instructions, I just let him go out there and attack. At training sometimes it's bad because you think he might hurt someone because of how hard he attacks, but I love that approach.

"They are the best team to coach because we just have fun. At every training we have fun and we chuck games out there. I do bizarre shooting drills and we just have a lot of fun. We spend a lot of time laughing, it's not intense and they are never at each other.

"They play hard together on the court and enjoy each other's company off it. That's one of the special things that we keep harping to these young guys. They've grown up winning from under-12s to 20s and now this is their opportunity in the SBL.

"I played for years and years with imports who aren’t good people and don’t worry about winning, but while we have two of them we have to make the most of it."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Sebpix Photography