THE East Perth Eagles remain right in the women's SBL playoff hunt having already won more games this season than the last two combined and Kelsey Maffin's return has been a significant factor in their improvement under new coach Narelle Henry.

With the Lady Eagles having won just one match in 2013 and two in 2014, it was a big job for Henry to try to make them a competitive unit again, but that's just what she has done as coach with East Perth still in the playoff hunt heading into Week 16 of the 2015 season.

The Eagles have now won three of their last five matches meaning in that stretch alone they've equalled the win totals of the last two years, and not only are they significantly more competitive in 2015, but they remain a chance to make the playoffs.

East Perth now sits on a 5-11 record to not be too far behind the South West Slammers (6-9), Cockburn Cougars (7-11) and Perry Lakes Hawks (7-9) with games against the Slammers and Hawks not in the run home that could decide their fate.

While the Eagles did suffer a blow with Stephanie Jones sidelined since late May, the arrival of Kerise Delcoure has given them some added quality but it has been the return of Maffin this season that has been the biggest boost.

Maffin originally had a successful five-year stint between 2009 and 2013 having come out of the University of North Dakota, and now has put together another strong 2015 campaign on return to be one of the stars of the SBL again.

She was part of the SBL All-Star game on WA Day and while her numbers for the season are solid at 11.8 points and 5.5 rebounds a game, she has now had five straight games of either 18 or 19 points as the Eagles make a charge towards the playoffs.

Even though at 30 she is now entering the veteran stage, Maffin is enjoying being back at the Eagles and in particular to see her hard work on her three-point shooting pay off with her nailing a career-high 35.4 per cent from beyond the arc in 2015.

"I've just had my 30th birthday last week so I'm feeling very old now," told SBL Slam on 98five Sonshine FM.

"I struggled at the beginning of the season a little, but I've been working on my three-point shooting a lot at training and it's coming around alright."

Maffin has enjoyed playing under Henry as coach for the first time this season as well, and with point guard Delcoure now on board she has no doubt the Eagles can continue to perform strongly for the rest of the 2015 season.

"It's definitely good having her (Delcoure) back. Getting that experience that she's got definitely helps and she doesn’t need to score the points, but she's there defensively and she knows what to do. She has that experience in basketball to be in the right place at the right time," Maffin said.

"It's been really good having Narelle as our coach. She is the kind of coach who understands everybody's strengths and she interprets that into our offence so that the offence that we run is going to help everybody do what they do well."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Vicky Hile