By Jamie Thomas
Many had singled the Newcastle Eagles out at the start of the season as a dark horse for one of the top playoff seeds, with a very talented squad featuring a good amount of continuity and chemistry bolstered by some shrewd acquisitions, but such is the unpredictability of the WBBL, the Tyneside club’s season hasn’t quite panned out that way thus far.
Going into the closing stages of the regular season, the Eagles sit just outside the post-season qualification places, but with a hectic schedule in the final few weeks, altering their fate is very much within the team’s control, and we caught up with club stalwart Rachael Bland to find out more.
“It has been a year like no other on the court for us. We’ve had so many changes within the squad, but with the cohort we’d originally put together we were expected to be one of the top teams, but for one reason or another people have left and that never came to fruition.
“The season has been a rollercoaster, but we’ve tried to bond everybody together through tricky times on the court. We’ve got a month left now to salvage the season, but we believe we’ve got what it takes to do that after having our fair share of adversity this year.
“April is going to be a heavy month for us, but making the playoffs is in our own hands and I think we need this spell of constant games to get some continuity, some chemistry and familiarity on the court. It is a huge opportunity for us and we’re excited for it.”
“You can’t explain the feeling of playing in front of a full arena.”
Whilst their may not have been many wins on the court for the Eagles as they’d have liked so far this year, they’ve certainly helped mastermind one of British Basketball’s biggest wins this season, as their recent home game against Caledonia Pride featured a record crowd for a WBBL Championship game of over 1,100 attendants!
Bland discussed the emotions surrounding the showpiece event, and how she hopes it can only help the wider women’s game in the future.
“It was pure excitement in the build-up, really. We finally had the opportunity to build a buzz around the game with some resources behind us, to have a prime slot to play the game and it was just a great opportunity to push the women’s game forward.
“We enjoyed the challenge as a group of players as well to take some ownership of the promotion of the game, on top of all the great work the club did and does, reaching out to people we might not normally have a chance to touch base with, and luckily it turned out to be an amazing event.
“There was some relief, of course, that it did turn out to be such a success, but we have been gaining huge momentum in terms of crowd numbers in this part of the world over the last few years. You can’t explain the feeling of playing in front of a full arena, it just gives you so much energy and for us to have sold out is really promising and shows what we can all do in the future.”
“There are positives for us to build on for sure.”
Having played at least two games less than those in the playoff positions at present, the Eagles are two wins away from the eighth spot, and Bland discussed what fans can expect to see from the team in the final few weeks of the year as the push for the post-season.
“We’re still trying to find our identity. Ideally, we want to be a tough defensive team because we might not always put up the points we need to afford to have off nights on the defensive end of the floor.
“Despite our struggles we have done a good job a lot of the time of holding teams to below their average scoring numbers, so we know we can do it, but we just haven’t been able to score the points we need to win.
“There are positives for us to build on for sure, but it is hard to say what we’re going to look like because even though it is so late in the year, we’ve had so many changes that we’re still trying to build out our identity.”
Can the Newcastle Eagles make the playoffs? Get your tickets for the WBBL Playoff Finals at London’s 02 Arena on Sunday, May 15th, here!