Cockburn Cougars coach Stephen Charlton isn't fussed if others in the men's State Basketball League write his side off as it pushes for its first championship in nearly 20 years.

The Cougars showed remarkable improvement in 2011, winning 10 more games than they did the previous year and finishing nine places higher.

They won nine of their first 11 games to lead the league after eight rounds but slipped away from there, winning just five of their next 11, before salvaging a top four spot by winning their last four games of the regular season.

But Charlton said it wouldn't bother his side at all if other teams, pundits or fans choose to look at their form in the second half of the season and declare their hopes of a first title since 1992 over ahead of their quarter-final match-up with Perth Redbacks.

"If anyone thinks we're going to be the easy beats and just roll over, I'm quite happy to take that tag. They might get us, but one thing I know is our boys are going to give us a damn hard crack," he said.

"I'm not worried about it, upset about it, happy about it, unhappy about it. It is what it is. People are going to do that and that's fine. We're just going to go out and play.

"We had our little three-game hiccup but without being amazing we managed to squeeze out four-straight wins coming into the playoffs.

"The hiccup was there and it was real, but despite that, we still managed to hang on."

The Redbacks enter their best-of-three series against Cockburn, which begins on Saturday at Belmont Oasis before games two and three at Wally Hagan Stadium one week later, in impressive form, having won their past six games.

But Perth will likely be without Wildcats forward Jesse Wagstaff, at least for game one, due to his Australian Boomers commitments

Whether Wagstaff is available or not, Charlton expects the Redbacks to be a formidable opponent.

"This is as tough a challenge as there is," he said. "Their back court of Ryan Neill and Joel Wagner is as good as there is in this league."

"What this season has shown, with four teams equal five through eight, which I've never seen before, there's no easy teams in the first round of the playoffs. There's not even anything that's close that anyone could pretend is easy."

Despite Cockburn's huge improvement in less than 12 months, Charlton said this season wouldn't necessarily be viewed as a success.

"If we were just to disappear after two games in the first round, I think that would be disappointing and might taint the way we look at the season," he said.

"We've definitely improved and it is a great credit to the guys. There is certainly some satisfaction from that, but once you get in the playoffs and get a sniff of it all you want to do is to keep winning."

Article by Jacob Kagi
Photo by Mick Cronin

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