Image credit: Michael Farnell (Sports Imagery)
The last Grand Final series Cody Ellis played at RAC Arena he was his team's top scorer as he hopes to achieve a fairytale with an NBL1 West championship for the Warwick Senators where he's spent his basketball life at.
Ellis grew up the son of the inaugural Perth Wildcats captain and then championship captain, and one of Western Australian basketball's all-time greats, Mike, and went on to play in college at Saint Louis University and then with the Sydney Kings and Illawarra Hawks.
But his heart has always remained at the Warwick Senators, or Stirling as they were known for a lot of his life. That's why he continued to come back to play during his NBL career and why it's the only place he has kept playing since.
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He was the championship winning captain on the West Coast Classic team of 2020 creating a memory of a lifetime with his dad as coach, but in so many ways, this Saturday night's NBL1 West Grand Final at RAC Arena is a chance he's waited a lifetime for.
To pull on a Senators uniform on the biggest NBL1 stage there is in the country with a championship at stake is something that at a point in his career where every season might be his last, is something he is cherishing every moment of.
To get there with an almost buzzer-beating three-point preliminary final bomb from Cooper Creek against the Rockingham Flames just adds to the excitement of the week.
"I'm still kinda riding it a little bit I think," Ellis told The Hoop Hour on 91.3 SportFM.
That was one of the best games I've been a part of from start to finish, and especially the way it finished obviously was fantastic for us. But it's just nice to be on that end of a win because it doesn’t happen too often."
Grand Final with Senators means everything
Ellis grew up playing with the Senators before he went to the Australian Institute of Sport and then went on to spend four years at college with the Billikens, and returned home to start his NBL career at the Kings.
He would go on to play 127 games both the Kings and Hawks, but it's always been a pull to return to his home club the Senators where his dad Mike's jersey is retired and his uncles have a strong history, and now even his son Chase is also beginning his own playing journey.
That's what makes Saturday night's Grand Final for the Senators against the Geraldton Buccaneers so special for Ellis because of how much of his basketball heart is with Warwick where he's now played 243 SBL/NBL1 matches.
"It means the world to me and I think it's obviously something that you strive for every single year, and we've had some teams that I thought could go all the way but we've just never quite been able to get over the hurdle of making a Grand Final outside of that West Coast Classic year," Ellis said.
"So to be able to say that we're heading into a Grand Final now especially now with it at RAC Arena I think is something that is certainly very special. It's already been a bit of an emotional week and I'm really looking forward to it all playing out."
Only fitting it's Geraldton in the Grand Final
Ellis is one of several Warwick players who have played on RAC Arena previously with Elijah Pepper, Todd Withers and Mitch Clarke having played NBL games there.
Ellis never enjoyed much success at RAC Arena as a visiting player with the Kings and Hawks. In fact he won only one of 11 appearances, but he did top score for the Hawks back in Game 1 of the Grand Final Series against the Wildcats in 2017.
Now for Saturday night's Grand Final, he sees it as only fitting in so many ways that it's the Geraldton Buccaneers that the Senators will be facing given they could well have become his team's fiercest rivals over the past decade with their numerous playoff battles.
"It's one of those things where we always seem to run into them in the playoffs," Ellis said.
"Dayle (Joseph) and what he has done with Gero, they are just the gold standard in this league and year in, year out they are always there or there abouts.
"Their sustained success has been extremely impressive and I'm sure it's something that inspirational to lots of other clubs around with how they do things.
"I'm not overly surprised that's who we are playing and it was just going to happen especially after us playing them in that first round. We've played them three times this year and it's been three blowouts so I expect Grand Final day is going to be one that goes down to the wire."
Coach Cooper a match made in heaven
Up until the end of 2021 and Ellis had spent his entire SBL/NBL1 career with the Senators with dad as coach. He'll forever treasure that experience, but since he has enjoyed firstly playing under Luke Brennan and now Andrew Cooper.
Cooper joined the Senators ahead of the 2024 season and with enormous success with WA state teams behind him along with as a long-respected assistant in the league and his first head coaching role at the Cockburn Cougars, he has fitted in perfectly at Warwick.
What Ellis most likes about having Cooper on the board is the past faced, high volume shooting style of game he has instilled which is why they are scoring 109.5 points a game on the road to the Grand Final.
"I think his game style is something to the way we as a club have kinda put together teams to play in the past so I think it has been almost like a match made in heaven," Ellis said.
"Obviously things didn’t work out too well for Cockburn for him in the end so they decided to part ways but that has certainly been a victory for us.
"We were able to sign him on board and even last year we had a really good team, and probably one that could have won the whole thing but we had a bit of average luck towards the end of the season. It's been great having him on board and he's certainly doing a fantastic job."
Much more than a one man team
The other thing Ellis feels like is a key to this Warwick team of 2025 that has got them to a Grand Final is how deep they are and how many different offensive threats they have.
Sure, they have Elijah Pepper who is going at 36.1 points a game, but also Mitch Clarke with 18.6, Todd Withers 17.9, Cooper Creek 11.8, George Pearl 9.3, Ellis himself 7.1 and Brody England 6.4.
Ellis did like the team they had last year too but in the end the recruitment of Zac Gattorna not turning out because of a back injury, and some other late season hiccups saw them lose in Kalgoorlie in the first round.
However, this year, with largely the same group but just with Pepper replacing Michael Harris and then with the addition Clarke, and Ellis couldn’t be happier with the group he's part of.
"We're a really well rounded team and we've got depth in every spot," Ellis said.
"Last year had Zac been in that line-up it could have been a very different looking season for us, but we were just riddled by injuries and sickness towards the end which didn’t help us either.
"But we've ticked all the boxes this year and Coop and his staff have really done a good job of recruiting and putting a great team together. Hopefully we can go that one step further now."
Having both teams in the Grand Final
While the Senators men did win the West Coast Classic championship in 2020 when Ellis was captain, it has been a lifelong dream for Ellis to get to the stage with Warwick they will be on come Saturday night.
The only other Grand Final for the Senators in the men's competition was back in 1990 with a loss to a powerful Perth Redbacks, but the women have enjoyed plenty more recent success.
That included winning both the NBL1 West and National Finals championship in 2022 while also making a Grand Final in 2019 and having been banging on the door since.
Now to have both Senators teams in Grand Finals at RAC Arena come Saturday night in so many ways is a dream come true for Ellis.
"It's absolutely buzzing around the whole club which is awesome," Ellis said.
"We've been chasing the success of the women's program for a while now and they have constantly put great teams on the floor for quite a few years in-a-row and they got the injury bug at about two-thirds of the way through the season.
"That really nipped them in the bud and they could very easily have laid down and fallen out of that top four, and then had to really battle to stay in contention.
"But they've done a really good job and Robbo and his staff have done a fantastic job of keeping them competitive and getting a lot of minutes into some younger girls that could pay dividends come Grand Final day.
"The vibe around the whole club is awesome and it's super special that our first Grand Final in 35 years is shared with them as well. For me, that makes it a very proud moment."