Chemistry runs deep: CoE's bond strengthens tilt at NBL1 East title

• The Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence men finished second on the NBL1 East ladder with a 15-5 record
• They host the Norths Bears in an elimination final on Saturday at 3pm
• Norths are coming off a 81-73 win over Manly in an elimination final last week

When Robbie McKinlay entered the 2025 NBL1 season as head coach of the Centre of Excellence (CoE), he was faced with a situation comparable to no other.

McKinlay, who also coaches the Australian Emus under-19s side and leads some of the most talented Australian male basketballers, has the unique dilemma of overseeing two different programs with many of his playing group in each.

Yet, despite a constant state of flux, McKinlay has found a winning formula within a professional environment as the CoE men powered themselves to a 15-5 record, equal with ladder leaders Illawarra.

McKinlay shared that the World Cup sandwiched in the middle of the season, created a strong focal point, helping the group set high standards and ultimately driving a strong, entertaining brand of basketball.

“We always had the World Cup, so we want to get better every game, and we knew that, a large chunk of the group was going to head there in July, end of June… we’ve got a good group of kids that work hard,” he said.

“The 2007-born kids, most of them have been to a World Cup before. The ’06 guys, the leaders of the program, like Jacob Furphy, Luke Fennell – they knew where they wanted to go, and we knew we had to get better each and every week – and we sort of had that eye towards the World Cup and firing at the right time for that tournament.”

McKinlay identified the philosophy of the CoE is to prioritise development and expose their talents to meaningful games. While he describes it as a juggling act, being spoilt for choice has given him a lot of welcomed problems with the talent at his disposal.

“We understand that the CoE is a stepping stone along their basketball journey, it’s not the final destination. There’s no point in coming to the CoE and sitting on the bench. A big part of the development is the opportunity to play games – the winning piece is a by-product of playing well,” he said.

“It’s not a situation where we’re just going to play our top five guys, no, we’re going to play all 12 guys and give them an opportunity, and I think that helps with the overall group as well. If the 12th guy’s getting minutes, improving and getting better, that’s going to help the top tier guys as well.”

In all except for one game, McKinlay fielded nine players for a minimum of 10 minutes each, with 18 of 20 contests featuring 10 or more athletes. A 28-point early season win against Manly was one of multiple cases, where McKinlay wouldn’t play anyone more than 25 minutes.

The comprehensive nature of their wins, winning by an average of 21.7 points in their first 10 victories this season, have a massive part to play in this luxury of McKinlay’s., who said their recruiting strategy was just as much of a juggling act.

With a heavily loaded schedule of basketball activities all year round, from college recruitment, to summer workouts and international duties - the COE have worked tirelessly to bring in talent to cover all bases – with international players, and aspiring prodigies making up some of the 23 athletes on the CoE squad according to the NBL1. This includes the 2009-born Will Hamilton and 2008-born Jai Fa’ale.

McKinlay feels the tight overlap between the CoE and national representation at under-19s bodes well for the group, and means that continuity can be maintained with a large group of the squad getting earning national team honours.  

At the FIBA Under-19s Men's World Cup bridging from June to July, McKinlay led the Emus, and oversaw seven of his CoE players who took to the national stage, including captain Furphy, Che Brogan, defensive stopper Alex Dickeson, and new Washington State University commit Nash Walker.

McKinlay said these players benefited from another overlap, one which includes the workings of the Australian Boomers, which the CoE have adopted in their own on-court performance, allowing players to cope with constant change, and allows coaches like McKinlay to easily implement a plug-and-play system with squad availability in a constant state of flux.

“The base offense we run is just a copy of what those guys do at the Boomers level. And that’s to help our guys when and if they get that opportunity to go and play in those games, that the base is there, and they understand two side, three side action,” he said.

“It’s not really designed for one person, I think it allows everybody to sort of understand how we want to play, and allows them to show their strengths when they do get their opportunity.”

Having overseen their play at both the international under-19s and NBL1 level, McKinlay was optimistic about what the likes of Brogan and Dickerson could provide in the playoffs. More importantly, he feels the experience of playing against some of the world’s best young talent and facing adversity at the World Cup bodes well for the physical challenges thrown at them during the postseason.

“There’s a lot of good players, a lot of good teams, we’re not taking out foot off the gas at all,” he said.

“Playing Manly was a great experience for us, and then playing a physical Maitland, obviously Maitland won it last year and they got a lot of quality players – so I think the lead-up has been good and we’re looking forward to the game this weekend.

McKinlay pointed out that the keys to a healthy playoff run will largely sit with their ability to retain the basketball and lock in defensively, he also pointed to team health as a way for the group to trump last season’s effort of bowing out in the preliminary finals to eventual champions in the Maitland Mustangs.

“I think we’ve got a few more players this year – I think last year because of the turnover of players, and we had some key injuries as well, I think that’s just going to help us, it gives us a few more players to lean on – that will hopefully allow us to not experience deja vu.”

McKinlay spoke to the camaraderie of the playing group, which has a leg up over other teams given the overlap in multiple professional environments, and he also believed the challenges of the World Cup could assist the CoE in a longer playoff run.

“These guys, they’ve travelled the world together, they eat breakfast every morning together, we’ve got a really good group of guys who enjoy being around each other and they want what’s best for everybody,” he said.

“I think it [the camaraderie] played a part in the World Cup when we did get punched in the face a few times in game, we didn’t break – we learnt to be a steady ship over a rollercoaster of emotions… I expect similar here, because it’s going to be a bit of a rollercoaster with scoring runs. They’re fired up for this finals campaign and they’re definitely looking forward to it.”

Having lost to Canberra in the qualifying final 88-72, a game where they allowed the physical bodies of Glenn Morison, Cam Pender, and Will Mayfield to lead the Gunners to a 64% mark from inside the arc, another challenge presents itself this week for the CoE to respond.

McKinlay said he and his playing group were excited for what's to come in the NBL1 playoffs.

“Anyone can win the whole thing, and there’s a lot of NBL experience in the league this year. So the value we’ll get from playing these games is invaluable – everything’s on the line now, and we’re looking forward to playing as many of these games as we can," he said.