Petrik and Lynx continue to chase the dream
The Perth Lynx have gone so close to a WNBL championship in two of the past three seasons through being a dynamic offensive team, but coach Ryan Petrik is excited to see a more versatile defensive team with the additions of Ally Wilson and Laeticia Amihere.
The Lynx have been heartbreakingly close to that elusive WNBL championship by winning both Game 1’s of the respective Grand Final series they have taken part in so Petrik is fully aware that while you are banging on the door, you don’t need to change too much.
Over the past 15 years he has spent coaching, he has learned that the key to success is continuing to put yourselves in a position to win and should you keep doing that, eventually you will break through and that’s the approach he’s taking with the Lynx.
However, just through a change in personnel and there will be a distinctive change in playing style for the Lynx in the 2024/25 WNBL season especially without the presence of a dynamic, smaller point guard like Aari McDonald or a genuine big centre like Emily Potter.
Instead, the Lynx team of this season will have a taller point guard with the signing of Ally Wilson while will be more versatile especially at the defensive end up front with the inclusion of Laeticia Amihere.
Amy Atwell is back to be co-captain after her taste of the WNBA and to share the leadership duties with Anneli Maley is another significant factor for the Lynx along with reigning NBL1 West MVP Teige Morrell on deck on the full roster as a naturalised player.
The Lynx have also brough back Mackenzie Clinch Hoycard, the recently married Miela Goodchild, Alex Ciabattoni and Steph Gorman along with adding Kiara Waite.
Feeling ahead of season-opener
The season now begins at home for the Lynx at Bendat Basketball Centre this Saturday night in a Grand Final rematch against the Southside Flyers.
For a whole host of reasons, Petrik just can’t wait to get the season underway.
“I’m just ready for it to start to be honest. Like all coaches, players and administrators at this time of year, after six or seven weeks of just going up against yourselves can get tedious,” Petrik said.
“You just want to start playing games and especially from our side being isolated in Perth, it’s not as easy for us to play against other teams to break things up a little bit against other opponents.
“But being in Perth we’re just stuck going up against ourselves and making up scratch matches against teams with development players and a couple of bonus players. Saying we’re ready for a real opponent now would be an understatement.”
Squad for this season
Obviously, any coach coming into a new season is going to be happy with the coach that they have at their disposal, but what Petrik is excited about is with this new group is the ability it provides them to play a different style.
By having a taller guard with Wilson on board and then the versatility provided by Amihere, and Petrik is looking forward to seeing what a difference it makes to his group defensively this season.
“I’m not sure you’re going to find many coaches at this time of year who will say that their team stinks, everyone is bullish, but clearly we like it because we built it,” Petrik said.
“It’s probably the closest we’ve gotten to from a defensive side of things in terms of how we want to play. Clearly we’ve played offence very differently to what the league has seen in years gone past, but defensively we’ve been pretty vanilla.
“We really wanted to try and play a way more advanced style defensively and be more way more 2024 in terms of switchability, and all the different ways a modern defence operates.”
A change to defensive capabilities
Petrik has always done a tremendous job finding high-quality imports whether it’s back to his championship winning days with the women’s Rockingham Flames team, with that men’s team in more recent years or with the Lynx now as head coach.
Having Jackie Young and Aari McDonald in particular in the Grand Final seasons provided them with dynamic and exciting point guards while they then had big centres with the likes of Lauren Scherf and Emily Potter.
However, if Petrik couldn’t get players of that quality, he thought it might be a good time to try a slightly different approach in terms of the type of players and that’s where the recruiting of Wilson and Amihere came to play.
“We haven’t quite been able to do it with the roster we’ve had over the years, but going and getting Laeticia who can legitimate guard one through five, changes what we are doing defensively,” Petrik said.
“Then getting Ally Wilson too who is a six-foot combo guard, it just gives you options and versatility. The smaller guards when you get the top level ones like Aari McDonald, but there’s certain things they can’t do as well as a taller guard defensively.
“So it gives us a different look defensively to what teams have done before when they have the traditional small point guard and big, big centre. Now we’ve got a 6’1 combo guard and a 6’4 big who can switch everything. It gives us the ability to play a different way.
“It wasn’t as if we decided we didn’t want someone like Aari coming back, but when that wasn’t possible we were never going to settle and decided to go get an elite version of something else.”
Continuing to chase that championship
There’s no hiding from the fact that losing Grand Finals especially when you have one hand on the trophy is not a fun experience, but for Petrik it’s much better to be in a position to contend than the alternative.
That’s why he will continue to do everything he can as coach of the Lynx to be a genuine championship contender because the more times you are in the mix, the better chance you have to eventually breakthrough.
“You obviously never want to lose, but that’s not the part I sit around thinking about. What we do know is that we’re close,” Petrik said.
“The reality is that if you play that Grand Final series out a 100 times, we’re not losing all 100 so we are right there with a chance. Therefore part of me is thinking that what we’re doing is fine and there’s an alternative world where we could have two championships.
“Clearly we weren’t good enough and didn’t have anything robbed from us or anything, but geez we’ve been close twice. So because of that, we don’t want to completely overhaul everything and we know the style works.
“It’s like if you’re playing blackjack, you want to have 100 hands at the table instead of just throwing all your chips in on one. If you give yourself 100 chances, you’ll end up winning 35 or 40 times, and that’s what we’re trying to do.
“We’re trying to put ourselves in the position to win enough times where we can do it a couple of times. I’ve seen that work in our NBL1 teams at Rockingham both with the women and men so we want to keep doing what we’re doing, and eventually we’ll breakthrough if we keep creating opportunities.”