THERE are fascinating match ups wherever you look in Week 4 of the Men's SBL and starting with all four games on Friday night there's not a contest without plenty riding on it.

The round begins on Friday night with the Perth Redbacks playing the East Perth Eagles, the Perry Lakes Hawks taking on the Willetton Tigers, the Mandurah Magic hosting the Kalamunda Eastern Suns and the Rockingham Flames battling the Lakeside Lightning.

The round continues on Saturday night with the Geraldton Buccaneers playing the Cockburn Cougars, the East Perth Eagles taking on the Joondalup Wolves and the Kalamunda Eastern Suns facing the Goldfields Giants.

Finally on Sunday there are two more games with the Willetton Tigers playing the Goldfields Giants and the Stirling Senators taking on the South West Slammers.

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Friday night sees two of the in-form teams from the opening three weeks of the season do battle when the Redbacks host the Eagles at Belmont Oasis.

 

With Shawn Redhage and Alex Loughton, the Redbacks won all four of their games to start the season but Loughton has now departed and Michael Vigor yet to return making Friday's clash interesting to see what adjustments they make.

 

The Eagles were without Kevin Anthony and Mason Bragg last week, but still scored a strong victory on the road to the Slammers seeing them improve to 3-1 on the season and setting up a terrific battle with the Redbacks.

 

The Hawks and Tigers shapes as another tremendous contest with Perry Lakes putting in a strong effort on an emotional night last Friday night to come from behind and beat the Cougars.

 

The Tigers welcomed Ray Turner for their trip to Geraldton and had a big road win over the Buccs as well even without Jay Bowie. The Hawks and Tigers both enter the contest 2-1 and will be looking to make a real statement.

 

The Magic and Suns are then two of the remaining winless teams in the competition heading into a first home game at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre for the Magic since 2015.

 

The redeveloped venue will be hosting an SBL game for first the first time since the upgrade with the Magic hoping to celebrate with their first win under coach Aaron Trahair.

 

Mandurah did have new import guard Will McNeill for the first time last week in a loss in Kalgoorlie and Trahair is excited about the new facility they now get to play in.

 

"It's great to have a new facility. I'm not one to get too excited over a building, but it's really good. There are the two brand new courts and one of those will be the Showcourt," Trahair said.

 

"Obviously I haven’t seen it set up as it will be on a game night, but from all accounts there will be a nice atmosphere there and the best thing is that the club have brand new offices and we'll have a brand new entrance that will be just open on game nights.

 

"The club will have the chance to run that on their own for the first time. And in terms of the players and coaches, it's nice to have some actual changerooms there to call home and we don't have just a little room with makeshift walls.

 

"I'm sure the visiting teams will also appreciate having their own changeroom instead of the aerobics room or crèche. There's a lot of excitement around the town and club to getting into the new stadium."

 

Meanwhile, Kalamunda coach Michael Clarke is hoping to spoil Mandurah's party on Friday as part of a weekend that also sees the Suns take on the Giants as they chase their first win of 2017.

 

"We would like to think we can go into this weekend and win two games, but we never take anything for granted up here. Winning is so special for us and we never expect to win. We play to our best and obviously hopefully that hard works gets paid off with wins, but we'll need to play well to make that happen," Clarke said.

 

"It's been a while since we've been down to Mandurah. I saw them play a couple of weeks ago against Lakeside and they showed good signs. They will be tough in their true home so that's another big test for us. We take nothing for granted because there are no easy games for us. That's just the reality of where we are at the moment."

 

The last game on Friday night then pits the Flames up against the Lightning at Mike Barnett Sports Complex.

 

Rockingham has just the one win from three games so far this season so will be looking bounce back at home while Lakeside has started well at three from four and will want to keep that momentum going.

 

Saturday night's action begins with a rematch from last year's semi finals with the Buccaneers hosting the Cougars at Active West Stadium.

 

Geraldton lost its first game of the season last Saturday night also at home to Willetton so won't want to lose twice.

 

Cockburn, meanwhile, made up for the disappointment of losing at home last Friday night to Perry Lakes by beating the Senators at Warwick on Saturday to improve to 2-2 on the season under new coach Adam Nener.

 

The Eagles return home to Morley Sport and Recreation Centre after playing the Redbacks on Friday to host the unbeaten Joondalup Wolves on Saturday in another terrific contest.

 

The Suns back up playing in Mandurah on Friday by hosting the Giants on Saturday with Goldfields coming off its first win of the season last Saturday night at home to Mandurah on the back of returning captain Jacob Holmen.

 

Sunday then sees the Giants back up and take up the challenge of playing the Tigers at Willetton Basketball Stadium.

 

The final game of the round takes place at 4pm at Warwick Stadium with the Senators hosting the Slammers.

 

Stirling won its opening game of the season against Perry Lakes but has lost its last two games since while South West is yet to win in 2017 under new coach Charles Nix setting up an important contest for both teams.

 

WEEK 4 MEN'S SBL FIXTURES
FRIDAY
Perth Redbacks v East Perth Eagles – Belmont Oasis 8.30pm
Perry Lakes Hawks v Willetton Tigers – Bendat Basketball Centre 8.30pm
Mandurah Magic v Kalamunda Eastern Suns – Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre 8.30pm
Rockingham Flames v Lakeside Lightning – Mike Barnett Sports Complex 8.30pm

SATURDAY
Geraldton Buccaneers v Cockburn Cougars – Active West Stadium 8pm
East Perth Eagles v Joondalup Wolves – Morley Sport and Recreation Centre 8pm
Kalamunda Eastern Suns v Goldfields Giants – Ray Owen Sports Centre 8.30pm

SUNDAY
Willetton Tigers v Goldfields Giants – Willetton Basketball Stadium 12pm
Stirling Senators v South West Slammers – Warwick Stadium 4pm

Photo by Mick Cronin