Why Wildcats Are Average: Rillie

The OG Perth Wildcats fans aren’t familiar with this. The ‘Cats have won 10 championships, had a 35-year finals streak and have been the model of consistent success in the NBL.

Now, they’re simply “average”. That was the blunt assessment made by Perth coach John Rillie in the fallout of Thursday night’s 96-82 loss to the Adelaide 36ers.

The result dropped the Wildcats to seventh on the ladder approaching the midway point of the season, while they’ve won just three of their first seven home games, something that hasn’t happened since 1999.

Rillie admits they don’t have the same trademark Perth “physicality” which could lead to an unsuccessful season.

“I can sit here and say well it will only be one game this time, but for us if we’re not playing with that physicality or that intent on both ends of the floor, we’re an average team in the NBL,” Rillie said.

“When we apply ourselves and are great teammates, we are a very good team but our margin (for error) is very slim.”  

The Wildcats have had a rocky two years involving changes in coaches and ownership. With this season being Rillie’s first stint as the head coach, he is looking at himself to try and solve the on-court issues.

“The first guy I look at is myself because when you come out at the start of a game like that after performing at a high level the last couple of times, I have got to look at what impact I’m having on that, whether negatively or positively,” Rillie said.

Perth’s top scorer Bryce Cotton laments the fact the ‘Cats are needing to pick up their game and work on their strategy.

“Practice is good but if you don’t do it when it’s game time it doesn’t matter, so we have to find a way to make sure we have better starts and playing good minutes for a longer span of time,” Cotton said.

The Wildcats next play the Brisbane Bullets on Thursday at 7:30pm AEDT.