THE Joondalup Wolves are in their fourth Men's SBL Grand Final of the past six years but back-to-back championships have so far eluded them and now that's the goal for coach Ben Ettridge and his group.

Ettridge took over as coach of the Wolfpack for the 2011 season and it went perfectly winning the club's second Men's SBL championship that year.

Things didn’t quite come together in 2012 denying the Wolves back-to-back titles before they just fell short of a dominant Lakeside Lightning team in the 2013 Grand Final with Craig Friday replacing Ettridge as coach for that season.

The Wolfpack then surprisingly missed the finals altogether in 2014 before a dominant 2015 season resulted in a big Grand Final win over the South West Slammers and their third Men's championship and a second for Ettridge as coach.

The Wolves have again had a strong 2016 going neck and neck for top spot with the Cockburn Cougars all season and now both teams will do battle in Saturday night's 2016 Grand Final at Bendat Basketball Centre.

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Ettridge is proud of what the Wolves men's program has been able to achieve over six years now with four Grand Final appearances but managing to win back-to-back titles would further illustrate the outstanding work the club and his playing group have put in.

"For us it's about sustained success so from 2011 onwards we won a championship that year in my first year in the league when no one thought I could coach in it coming from wheelchair basketball," Ettridge said.

"There wasn’t a lot of respect there yet we finished second and got it done. Then in 2012 there was a little bit of expectations and we finished top of the table at 23-3 but circumstances fell apart in the semis with injuries, people leaving and me going away.

"But for me to go away in 2013 and for Craig to get them to a Grand Final was phenomenal. We had those three years at the top and 2014 saw injuries get hold of us, but last year we put all the pieces together. We have now made four of the last six Grand Finals and that's pretty special.

"The boys that have done that, we are passing the torch over a little bit and it's great for guys like Jordan Wellsteed, Reece Maxwell and Ben Ironmonger even though he's not playing to be jumping in.

"We are about sustained success and if we win it, it's because we're good enough. And if not, we've still achieved something special but the ultimate goal is to win another one."

The semi-final series for the Wolves against the Tigers was tremendous preparation for the Grand Final with three high quality and intense matches with Joondalup ending up winning Games 1 and 3 at home to advance to another decider.

It was obvious in Game 3 on Saturday night that Trian Iliadis and Seb Salinas simply wouldn’t allow the Wolves to lose and they combined for 11 three pointers to be among the stars.

"He (Iliadis) did get in foul trouble early but had that patch where he does what Trian does. Reece Maxwell was phenomenal as well and you don’t want to underestimate the impact the birth of his daughter has had on Seb," he said.

"He did an amazing job just to turn up and play on Friday and I know he was pretty emotional after the game. Seb would have never had two bad games in-a-row in his career so we knew he was going to come out with something special as well."

The Wolves' big men of Kevin Davis, Rob Huntington and Damian Matacz were dominant figures in the semi-final victory over the Tigers but Ettridge knows it's a whole other challenge now against the Cougars.

That includes a mouth-watering match up of Cougars centre Marcus Goode and Davis who could deserve to be one and two in MVP voting this season. Ettridge himself can't wait to see how it eventuates.

"The minutes of KD, Robbie and Damo all become very important for us, and Kev against Marcus is something to look forward to," Ettridge said.

"We probably haven’t had two big guys of this quality going head to head in a long time. Marcus has really found his form and is obviously a handful so I'm looking forward to those two going at it."

It has been a tremendous year all-round for the Joondalup Wolves with the Women's team having also qualified for the Grand Final against the Willetton Tigers on Friday night.

Both Wolves teams are made up mostly of local products as well and home crowds at Joondalup Basketball Stadium have been strong all season, including the Men not losing a single game at home all year and having won 29 straight on their home deck.

Ettridge is proud of everything the club is doing on and off the basketball court and the future continues to look exciting with the move for the 2018 to the brand new basketball stadium at HBF Arena.

He takes great pride in being involved in a basketball association doing so many good things and he would be as happy as anyone if the Women's team wins on Friday night coached by Craig Friday.

"That's because we are a club. It's the people behind the scenes and you look at Van and Mary Kailis who ran this association for 30 years with class and by doing things properly. It's not just in the last five or six years, there is one championship for every three years this association has been around," Ettridge said.

"The guys who are here now in full-time positions Ryan Thompson and Cameron Britt, they have some big plans and we have the move to the new Arena ahead of us. That builds the pride in what we are doing and it's just an exciting time to have both teams in a Grand Final.

"Craig Friday is one of my best mates and to see him have this success is great. He jumped from the women's to the men's squad and they won a championship after all his hard work, then he was with us for a Grand Final and I took back over and we won last year.

"I'm just gunning for him to get one because he's the hardest working guy I know and we joke about it, but he's one of my best friends and best mentors I've had. I have the ultimate respect for him."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Serene-Elise Photography