Rillie: "The most selfish thing a player can do"

01 Nov 2026

perth wildcats

John Rillie didn’t hold back on where the Wildcats fell short against Illawarra, with the Hawks dominating the glass.

By

NBL.com.au

Less than a week ago, the Perth Wildcats were 5-2 after edging Melbourne United 103-102 in a thriller.

Since then, John Rillie’s side has dropped home games to the competition’s two NSW sides, Sydney and Illawarra.

A poor first quarter haunted the Wildcats in Wednesday’s Ignite Cup loss to the reigning champions, while it was another element that hurt them against the 10th-placed Hawks.

“I’m going to just hop on it nearly irrespective of what question you guys ask me; it’s our rebounding,” Rillie said in Saturday’s post-game press conference.

“Too many times we have two, three guys in the fight; we need five guys, and we just don’t get that consistently enough right now as a team.

“First half it was 9-1 offensive rebounds. They [Illawarra] beat us on the glass by 15.

“If you rebound at a high level, you give yourself a chance when you can’t find the rhythm like we didn’t tonight.

“That was the disappointing thing for me: our willingness to go pursue the rebound.”

“It’s the most selfish thing a player can do that’s unselfish for your team.”

On the flip side, the Hawks, who were 2-8 heading into Saturday’s RAC Arena fixture, had no such intensity issues.

“Their backs were against the wall,” Rillie added.

“We knew that they were going to come in with an urgency to their performance, and they beat us in that area.

“We didn’t create the urgency as a group.”

Anthony Dell’Orso led the Wildcats with 21 points and 3 steals, Dylan Windler added 19 points, 10 rebounds and 4 steals, and Kristian Doolittle finished with 16 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds, but Brandon Knight was held to 12 points on 4/13 shooting.

For the Hawks, Kelan Martin snapped out of a two-game slump with 23 points, including 5 triples, while WA product Johny Narkle scored 9 of his 11 points in the final quarter to halt a 17-6 Perth run and seal the 105-98 win.

The Wildcats will look to end a two-game skid when they travel to Brisbane on Thursday to play the Bullets from 8pm AEDT, live on ESPN.