Wildcats sharpen claws

The Perth Wildcats added a new step to their Playoff preparations over the weekend, and brought referees into an intra-club scrimmage to help the side remain sharp ahead of the upcoming series against Tasmania.

The Wildcats will not have taken to the NBL floor in almost three weeks when the first game of their best-of-three series against Tasmania comes around.

Head coach John Rillie says it’s been a balancing act managing his team’s training over the time off.

“It’s the first time I’ve been through this so there’s an element of trial and error through it. You need your players to be engaged, but to be engaged for that period of time is somewhat unrealistic until you do know the task at hand,” he said.

“We wanted to make sure we remembered how to play with officials out there. It’s the first time we’ve brought in officials, they get sick of me being the ref so we needed to try and freshen it up a little bit and try and add a true game feel to it all.

“There’s certain elements or situations that present themselves in situations like that like late clock, end of quarter, what are we doing offensively and defensively, so it allows us to work on that type of stuff, but then guys to get up and down and remember what a game is – it’s just a shame it’s against the same opposition.”

Bryce Cotton was absent from the intra-club scrimmage on Saturday, and missed his side’s Round 20 clash with Tasmania due to a knee clash.

That was the only game the recently-minted four-time MVP missed in the regular season, and Rillie put pay to any doubts surrounding the star guard’s availability for Game 1.

“Bryce will play on Friday,” he said.

The Wildcats’ series-opener against Tasmania will tip off on Friday night at 9:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo.