WILLETTON Tigers coach Simon Parker is hoping that his current group can win a Women's SBL championship together before they begin going their separate ways, but after last year's heartbreak he knows nothing is guaranteed.

The Tigers had a tremendous 2015 and even played well in the Grand Final but some heroics by Sami Whitcomb for the Rockingham Flames denied them an eighth Women's SBL championship.

Willetton is now back in its 12th Grand Final after beating the Flames in the semi finals as they prepare to face the Joondalup Wolves in Friday night's decider at Bendat Basketball Centre.

Game 3 Women's Semi Final wrap 

There's no reason to think that Parker won't be able to pull together a team in 2017 that can again compete for a championship at the Tigers, but it will be a different looking outfit and that's why he is hoping this current team can win a championship together.

Louella Tomlinson is leaving for Europe on Saturday, Ebony Antonio is making AFL her full-time focus as soon as flying out on Saturday morning while Kate Malpass and Emma Lobb are among the other players who potentially won't be at Willetton again in 2017.

But that's to worry about after Friday night.

Parker is hopeful that the Tigers' experience on the big stage can help against a Wolves team who won the 2013 championship but hasn’t made a Grand Final since.

But no matter the opposition, Parker is just desperately hoping that this group he is currently coaching gets that championship he has no doubt they deserve.

"I think that experience helps and our senior players have been there four or five times, and Louella has been there for different clubs and at different levels. I think it does help and you don’t want a repeat of what happened last year so we have to make sure we get the win this year," Parker said.

"I think that's what the motivation is for this group to achieve something together. We spoke about it against Rockingham and I said I didn’t want this to be our last game together as a group.

"After what we've done the last two years we deserve to go out with a championship and that's been our motivation, but it's not going to be easy."

Things didn’t all go to plan during the season for the Tigers with Tomlinson missing some games, Desiree Kelley out injured for several weeks and there wasn’t too often when Parker had his full squad available.

That was until the last few weeks of the regular season and now during the finals. While they had to win through the hard way having finished third and winning two games in Rockingham to make the Grand Final, Parker is glad to have his full team up and firing, and healthy at the right time.

"It was a tough year for us and we wanted to build on what we did last year, but just with injuries and people being out for three or four weeks it was hard during the middle of the season," he said.

"But once we got our top seven or eight back together, we started hitting our straps and the belief came back.

"We had a bit of a rough patch there but got by it and now we are all ready to go for Friday. It's good to be injury free and no one has the flu or any niggling injuries or anything like that, so there's no excuses for us on Friday."

One of the fascinating aspects of this Grand Final week is if Wolves centre Ellyce Ironmonger is going to make it back from the United States to play or not having missed last weekend's Game 2 and 3 against the Hawks.

Given the Tigers have a strong frontcourt with Tomlinson, Zoe Harper and Lobb, Parker is hoping she does play to give his bigs someone to match up on.

"It would really change a lot of what we do if she isn’t there, especially with the way we play defence and I'm hoping she plays to be honest," he said.

"It's two totally different preps I think. With her on the floor it's a better match up for us and our bigs, but without her it's a different game and it's a faster game so we would have to make adjustments to fit in with that."

Parker has put in an enormous amount of work throughout all levels at Willetton and it's hard to imagine too many more deserving championship coaches.

He is certainly hoping that happens so he begins catching his old mate Glenn Clarke and he will have Tigers legend Melissa Collins (nee Marsh) next to him again on the bench after the recent arrival of her first child.

"This is my fourth year coaching SBL and my third Grand Final so I think it's about time to get rewarded for all that work. Winning a championship would mean a lot to me that's for sure," Parker said.

"Clarkey was thanking me the other for not letting Rockingham get a three-peat like he was able to do here. He has been a big help for me along the journey and we feed off each other, and he's been a good support to me even during the finals.

"Mel has also put a lot of time into Willo as well over the past 15 years so it will be good for her to be part of Friday night after just having her first baby."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by June Halliday