How to watch & talking points: Perth v Melbourne

25 Jan 2026

perth wildcats

melbourne united

Two of the competition’s heavyweights, Perth and Melbourne, will renew their rivalry in a blockbuster Sunday clash.

Perth Wildcats (5th) v Melbourne United (4th)
Sunday, January 25, 4.30pm AEDT
RAC Arena

How to watch‍

‍Watch every Sunday game live on ESPN and Channel 10.

>> How to watch ESPN

Tickets

>> Ticketing information

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Talking points

500 games for CG43
On Sunday, Chris Goulding will become just the 15th player in the league's history to feature in 500 NBL games.

A true legend of the game, with three NBL titles, a Championship Series MVP, seven All-NBL selections and a scoring crown to his name, Goulding has achieved everything in his career.

He'd love to celebrate the milestone over one of his former clubs and United's rivals, Perth.

Perth building
Don't look now, but the Wildcats have rattled off five straight wins and are starting to look like a legit championship contender.

They now sit just one win out of fourth spot, currently occupied by Sunday's rivals Melbourne.

So a win on Sunday would go a long way to securing the Wildcats a top four spot.

What they're saying

Wildcats guard Elijah Pepper on his recent strong play:
“I would say hard work pays off most of the time. It feels good when you go in, you get your shots up and you see the rewards in the next game. i don’t think that’s necessarily how basketball works sometimes.

“Basketball is an up-and-down sport sometimes. You might have a five-game shooting stretch where you’re not shooting great. You’ve got to be consistent with your work ethic, keep pushing through those lows and eventually it will all even out.

“It’s nice to have some consistency throughout a game. Instead of make one and miss two, it’s nice to see a bunch of them go in together.”

United coach Dean Vickerman on his team finding their mojo:
“There’s been a different mindset the last few weeks.

“I think when you dig a hole for yourself you can get out of it quickly and sometimes there’s a struggle and we got in the struggle and lost some close games.

“There was a lot of learning for us as a group to get people in the right spots but really it was just about the intensity of defence, playing more people and playing people a little bit less to keep the intensity of the game up.”