Albany to play host to Perth Redbacks and Perry Lakes Hawks in women’s and men’s NBL1 West regional showcase

Albany will play host to a double-header of NBL1 West games with Perth Redbacks and Perry Lakes Hawks coming for a basketball showcase later this year. The Albany Basketball Association will host two official 2025 NBL1 West fixtures on July 5, with a Saturday night double-header of State league action. The Redbacks home game will feature both a women’s and men’s fixture and is part of a three-day visit to the region with school clinics plus coaching and player clinics in a major boost for the sport in the Great Southern. The NBL1 West season began earlier this month and the regional trip to Albany will be in round 14, which also doubles as Indigenous Round. The matches will be played at Albany Leisure and Aquatic Centre with grandstands and corporate areas erected to cater for the hundreds that are expected to attend. The women’s match could feature two Olympic athletes with Anneli Maley part of the Redbacks squad and Sami Whitcomb on the Hawks roster. Whitcomb is a two-time WNBA champion and played for the Australian Opals at last year’s Paris Olympics, in a bronze medal campaign. The former Perth Lynx captain won the Suzi Batkovic Medal as the WNBL’s most valuable player in the 2024-25 season after dominating for the Bendigo Spirit. Maley is the Lynx co-captain and has represented the Opals while also recently playing for nations 3 x 3 side the Australian Gangurrus. She was part of the at the Paris Olympics and then part of the winning Asia Cup gold medal team. In the men’s fixtures the Hawks have two Albany products on their roster this season in Matt Leary and young rising star Billy McRae. Leary has played for the Hawks since 2021 while McRae is one of WA’s hottest teenage prospects. Former local Keanu Weeden who lives in Perth is helping bring the vision to life for the Albany Basketball Association and expose a higher level of basketball to the city. Weeden said it was going to be a huge few days of basketball in the region. “Thursday afternoon and the whole day Friday will have our school clinics going on,” he said. “Friday afternoon we will have coaches’ clinic on for about three hours. “Then then Sunday morning we will also have a skills clinic going on as well . . . we’re going to have the whole men’s and women’s Redbacks teams running the whole thing as well. “Saturday night we have the game, doors should open at four and we’re going to have a heap of seating areas we’ve got our sponsorship packages up and different corporate boxes. “We’re hoping to get a large crowd down just so we can give them a point of view of what it would look like if we did have something going on down there in future years . . . just trying to push for the community come down and check it out.” The women’s fixture is set down for 5pm and that will be followed by the men’s contest at 7pm.