Image credit: Michael Farnell (Sports Imagery)

Nat Burton has enjoyed this NBL1 West season so much it will no longer be her last and she couldn't be prouder of the fighting spirit the Warwick Senators have dug deep to find to reach the Grand Final at RAC Arena.

At this point of a decorated career with her time as a professional behind her, Burton just wants to enjoy her basketball and be a strong contributor to help her team and teammates in every way she can.

She wasn’t happy with the way 2024 ended and focused herself on making the most of 2025 with the Senators to embrace everything about still playing with a full vision that it would be the last season of her career.

After all, Burton is one of Western Australia's all-time great basketball products having won four championships in a 249-game SBL/NBL1 West career along with winning an NBL1 National title and a championship in Germany.

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She also represented the Australian Opals including at the Rio Olympics and when you throw in her college career at West Virginia, her European playing career and what she did in the WNBL at the West Coast Waves/Perth Lynx, Melbourne Boomers and Sydney Flames, she has achieved a hell of a lot.

And given everything the Senators have gone through this season to still finish in second position and now win straight through to the Grand Final with two finals wins despite never once being at full strength, she can't hide her excitement ahead of Saturday at RAC Arena.

Even if Burton has already won three SBL championships at the Perry Lakes Hawks in 2007, 2008 and 2017, the NBL1 West and NBL National titles at the Senators in 2022, and then also winning a championship in Germany with Herner TC In 2019, nothing beats the feeling of reaching the big one.

"It certainly is a really fun feeling and I know how rare championships are and how rare it can be to get into a Grand Final," Burton told The Hoop Hour on 91.3 SportFM.

"I've played for over 20 years and I couldn’t even count on two hands how many I've been to. It makes you understand how much it takes to get to this point in this season.

"I know when I was younger I was a bit flippant about it but as your career progresses and you see how rare it is, and the work that goes into it, I'm really standing in a space now where I'm really grateful to be here. I'm just trying to soak it all up as much as I can."

Rollercoaster ride of a regular season

The season for the Senators in 2025 is one that Burton is still struggling to work exactly how to define but what has stood out now as they prepare to play in the Grand Final is what an outstanding job they have done the last two weeks in the finals to pull the nose up.

There was the period at the start where Warwick were awaiting the arrival of Emma Gandini and Robbi Ryan, and the availability of Perth Lynx forward Kiara Waite.

While Waite never quite worked out only getting through three full games before returning in the preliminary final, when Ryan and Gandini joined the line-up, they won three games by an average of 43.3 points.

It wouldn’t last, though, with Ryan having not played since while Gandini only played four more games after that and All-First Team member Chloe Forster has only played half a basketball since too.

As a result, the Senators lost three of the last five games of the regular season but still finished second before then showing tremendous heart and spirit to beat the Perth Redbacks and Mandurah Magic to book in a Grand Final spot.

Even at the start of the season, Burton could send sense something wasn’t quite clicking despite them winning.

"It's been weird and there's been so many moments where we've looked at each other as teammates and have asked how or why this is happening," Burton said.

"Then I look at Brad and ask how we are winning but we just keep finding a way. The season started pretty rocky and we didn’t have everyone and even though we were winning, we were scraping through.

"We knew we were missing those people, but it felt like something wasn’t quite right and then it progresses and we're still winning. Then you bring in those amazing players and you bring in Robbi Ryan and Emma Gandini, and they really bolster us and fit in instantly.

"Then all of a sudden we were starting to win dominantly and it's a really good feeling, and I can tell we've got something really good going on, and in my head I think it's between Cockburn and us this year.

"Then towards the end we have our injuries and that just goes out the window, and it did. I will admit I thought we might be done even though we were still probably going to finish second.

"In reality, we'd lost those significant players and obviously you still go out there to work hard and try to stay positive, but in the back of your mind you know this is a very different team right now."

Winning on grit come finals time

While coming into the season and thinking of what Warwick could have been at full strength, the potential was amazing starting with a back court of Forster, Ryan, Gandini, two-time MVP Stacey Barr and Youth Player of the Year Kyana Weir.

Throw in WNBL forwards Waite and Mackenzie Clinch Hoycard, and Burton up front, and it was a Senators team that could have blown teams off the court which they did in those three games with almost a full squad against Rockingham, Willetton and Kalamunda.

However, without Ryan, Gandini, Forster and Waite for the most part during the finals so far, the Senators have had to win on heart and spirit, and Burton couldn’t be prouder of everyone involved.

"We had a few weeks where we did really struggle and it wasn’t until just the last two finals games where I think something has clicked for us," Burton said.

"We're now winning because we're just working our butts off and if you look at us on paper, we don’t really have the team to be in a Grand Final, but we are hustling and playing with grit and we're desperate out there.

"That's showing and that's how we're winning, and that's what we were missing at the start of the season.

"So to see how we've learnt how important that is because we've gone through those ups and downs is a really cool place to be in."

Taking on undefeated Cougars

While Warwick have done a terrific job to win their first two finals to make Saturday's Grand Final at RAC Arena, the challenge of the undefeated Cougars who are at full strength and have an average winning margin of nearly 32 points this season is a different story.

While Cockburn did beat Warwick by 45 points to close the regular season, that was a night where the Senators were missing all of Waite, Gandini, Weir, Forster and Ryan.

Going back to their first meeting at Warwick Stadium on May 16 and it was only a six-point win for Cockburn in their tightest game of the regular season.

Having seen Geelong United's undefeated season in the NBL1 South end in the Grand Final to the Knox Raiders on Saturday night, Burton knows the Senators have a fighter's chance but is fully aware how tough it will be.

"It's finals and I think anything can happen in finals. You go into it and finals is always a different ball game, and when you've been in and you know it, it's because there is that added pressure and added chaos if you buy into it," Burton said.

"Teams naturally are going to lift because if you don’t get excited for a final game then I don’t know what's wrong with you, you shouldn’t be playing sport. Everyone is more excited and there's that bit of extra adrenaline and you just need to make sure you harness that instead of letting it take over.

"So going into a Grand Final thinking they are undefeated and the last time we played them they beat us by however many points, I'm just thinking we will do what we can.

"I know what we need to do to play the way we've been playing so you just keep your focus on the process, and the things you can control and if you tick those things off, it will be what it will be and anything is possible. That's a really exciting place to be in."

Playing at RAC Arena for first time

Given everything that Burton has been part of in her career in the United States, Europe and Australia, and on the international stage, it's not easy to find new things to experience.

But that's exactly what will happen on Saturday when she plays at RAC Arena for the first time in the Grand Final for the Senators against the Cougars.

"It's really cool for sure and I've never played at RAC Arena so that's something that I love. It's a cool venue and to get to play somewhere like that in front of that many people in WA for NBL1, that's unheard of," Burton said.

"That wasn’t happening when I was a junior playing in SBL growing up and I really like that. Even at our home game on Saturday, we were warming up and looked up at the crowd and there were already so many people there, it was like it was a men's game.

"That's because the Warwick supporters have been all around us and they have been all season, and it just makes you feel euphoric when that crowd's there and people are hanging to come and watch you play basketball.

"What a privilege that is and having so many more people there on Saturday will make it such a fun and exciting game. It's another opportunity to play another game of basketball too and at this point in my career I'm taking as many of those as I can."

Still playing well and enjoying it

It's impossible to imagine the Senators reaching the Grand Final without the presence of Burton inside. With a host of teammates who put up some stunning numbers, she's the glue that pulls it altogether.

Burton might have nothing run for her and doesn’t want it, but she continues to put her body to work in the way she's trained it to for 20 years now to be a strong inside presence, terrific rebounder and defender, and just an all-round standout teammate.

That's all she wants to be and she has taken a different approach in a number of ways to this 2025 season, and is delighted with how it's paid off.

"I would say this season I'm having more fun that I've ever had playing basketball for quite a number of years," Burton said.

"Coming into this season I did a huge reset and I actually started talking to a sport psych because I ended last season thinking I was going to retire.

"So I worked through all of that stuff and came into this season in my head thinking it would be my last season. If that was going to be the case, I knew I had to soak it up because these moments would be gone very soon.

"That meant that I had to accept the trainings where I walked away feeling like I played crap or I got really frustrated, and I had to understand that's all part of it when you might lose a close game or lose by 45 points.

"That's all part of going for what you want which is a Grand Final or championship, but also individually going out and using my body like I've trained it to do for 20-plus years. And connecting with my teammates and helping them, and showing up in a way that I'm proud of.

"That has been my whole motivation for this season and because of that, it's made me really just enjoy basketball. I'm having a lot of fun and I think that's helping me play the way that I've been playing."

Chris Pike

Burton proud of Senators' grit to battle through