THEY are local rivals, split their match ups this season and now Orange Autos Rockingham Flames coach Ryan Petrik is expecting a tough challenge against the Mandurah Magic in the women's SBL semi finals for his minor premiers and defending champions.

The Flames have backed up their historic championship victory last year by again finishing the 2015 regular season on top of the women's SBL standings and then moving into the semi finals after beating the Cockburn Cougars in two games in the quarter finals.

That sets up a semi-final battle with the Magic who ended up finishing in fourth position at the end of the regular season and then also advanced to the semi finals after needing just in two games to beat the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

Mandurah has won in Rockingham already this season while Rockingham won in Mandurah, so each other's home floor holds no fear for either side and given the local rivalry between the two teams, raucous and packed houses are expected for the series.

Game 1 takes place this Saturday night at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre and Petrik can't wait to get into the series.

"It’s an interesting series as they got us in Rocko, and we returned the favour a few weeks ago in Mandurah," Petrik said.

"Being a local derby game we know they’ll draw a big crowd come Saturday night, but having been on this stage for the last four years, we’ll have no excuses as it shouldn’t be something that worries us."

Petrik reflects back on the loss to the Magic at home earlier in the season as being a wake up call for his defending champion team, and he was pleased to see them bounce back in the return encounter in Mandurah even if his two stars Darcee Garbin and Sami Whitcomb didn’t dominate.

Whitcomb is again in the MVP race this season, with her biggest rival likely Mandurah's Casey Mihovilovich adding greater intrigue to the series, while Garbin was at her dominant best in the quarter-final series against the Cougars.

Petrik is confident that the Flames are ready to fire against the Magic, but he expects quite the battle from his Peel region rivals.

"That first loss in Rockingham was a real wake up call. Full credit to Randy and his team as they forced us into playing really poorly, and they played great, and at the time it was a loss we needed to get the squad to focus on the job at hand in 2015," Petrik said.

"At this time of year you’re always looking for the positives, and the pleasing thing for us is that in that last game in Mandurah a few weeks ago, Garbin had just gotten off a plane from Korea and then fouled out, Whitcomb was just 2 of 10 from 3, we gave them a 13 point head start, and still found a way back to win by 16."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Serene-Elise Photography