17
Aug
Ultimate Guide
Perth Wildcats: Five things you need to know
Perth Wildcats NBL Profile and History
Ten NBL championships, a 35-season finals streak, and the season after Bryce Cotton left Perth
- The Wildcats have won ten NBL championships, more than any other club
- They made the finals in 35 consecutive seasons, from 1987 to 2021
- Bryce Cotton left after nine seasons and five MVPs, and signed with Adelaide
Ten NBL championships, a 35-season finals streak, and the season after Bryce Cotton left Perth. The Wildcats, explained.
No club in the NBL has won more than Perth, and none has been good for longer. The Wildcats made the finals in 35 straight seasons, a run that ended only in 2022. NBL26 was their first full season without the best player they have ever had.
NBL26 SEASON SUMMARY
- Record: 21-12, finished 4th
- Seeding qualifier: lost to South East Melbourne
- Play-in: beat Melbourne United 95-77
- Semi-final series: lost 2-0 to Sydney, game one 105-104
- Head coach: John Rillie
- Captain: Jesse Wagstaff
A season that came closer than the finish suggests. The Wildcats lost their seeding qualifier, won a play-in game against Melbourne to reach the semi-finals, and then lost game one to Sydney by a single point before going out 2-0. Sydney went on to win the championship.
HOW BRYCE COTTON CAME TO LEAVE
This is the defining story of the club's modern history, and both sides have told it publicly. Wildcats owner Mark Arena and Cotton have each set out their version, and they do not contradict each other so much as describe the same deadline from opposite ends.
The Wildcats were knocked out of the NBL25 finals in early March 2025. Arena's problem was the calendar. "We felt we certainly gave Bryce as much time as we could," he said, explaining that more than two thirds of the roster was out of contract at once, a consequence of the NBL's three-year maximum contract. "Our role is to build a team that could win a championship and we felt, even now still feel, that we had to move on and start building that team and that roster."
Cotton's problem was the same deadline from the other side. He had gone to Puerto Rico to play for Mets de Guaynabo, and says the club asked for an answer on an extension within two or three days.
"I was like, 'Hold up, you knew all year I've been saying I want to test Free Agency,'" Cotton said. "Not being cocky or arrogant, but I just had one of the greatest seasons in NBL history and I'm a Free Agent for the first time ever."
A week or so later his agent sent him a draft of a memo the club intended to release, stating he would not be part of the NBL26 squad. "I didn't even read the whole thing," Cotton said. He posted his own farewell to the Red Army before the club could publish, and Arena says he has no issue with that. "Ultimately it's his career and the same for any player. And they should have the absolute right to tell the fans and members," Arena said. "So no grudge and any of that."
Cotton's line on it is similar. "I'm doing what I felt was best for me by just seeing what was out there, and you're doing what's best for you as a business, because you don't want to wait, and that's fine."
He signed with Adelaide on a three-year deal. Captain Jesse Wagstaff was blindsided but not bitter. "Pretty shocked," he said. "But I've got nothing but love and respect for Bryce. I'm probably not still playing if it weren't for Bryce."
WHAT PERTH LOST
Cotton played nine seasons for the Wildcats and won five NBL Most Valuable Player awards there, in 2018, 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025. He was grand final MVP in the 2017 and 2020 championships, and made eight consecutive All-NBL First Teams. He won a sixth MVP in his first season at Adelaide.
On 1 December 2024 he scored 59 points against the New Zealand Breakers at RAC Arena, breaking a club record James Crawford had held for 38 years. He had 20 in the first quarter and 31 by half-time, and Perth won 123-112.
Keanu Pinder left in the same off-season. Between them, Cotton and Pinder took 43.9 points, 9.9 rebounds and 6.0 assists a game out of the roster, with one import spot to replace them.
Cotton returned to RAC Arena with Adelaide in round 11 of NBL26, on 7 December 2025. The 36ers were 18 points down entering the fourth quarter and won 95-94 on a 19-2 run. "I don't know what just happened to be honest," Cotton said afterwards.
THE CLUB
- Home: RAC Arena, Perth
- Founded: 1982, entering the NBL as the first Western Australian club
- Owner and CEO: Mark Arena
- General manager: Danny Mills
- Head coach: John Rillie
- Captain: Jesse Wagstaff
The Wildcats have won ten championships from 16 grand finals, six regular season championships and 39 finals appearances. The Red Army at RAC Arena is the largest and loudest home support in the league.
TEAM HISTORY
Perth entered the NBL in 1982, the first club from Western Australia, playing out of a venue seating a few hundred. Cal Bruton was central to the transformation of the late 1980s as both a player and a coach, and the Wildcats reached their first grand final in 1987.
The first championship came in 1990 and the second in 1991, built around James Crawford, Andrew Vlahov and Ricky Grace. A third followed in 1995 and a fourth in 2000.
Jack Bendat bought the club in 2007 and rebuilt it off the court. Under Rob Beveridge, Perth won a fifth championship in 2010 with Kevin Lisch named grand final MVP, and a new core formed around Damian Martin and Jesse Wagstaff.
Trevor Gleeson arrived in 2013 and won five championships in eight seasons, in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020, the most successful coaching run in the club's history. Cotton arrived partway through the 2016-17 season and was there for three of them. Gleeson left for the NBA in 2021.
The streak ended in 2022, when Perth missed the finals for the first time in 35 years. They have made the finals in every season since, without reaching a grand final.
CLUB LEGENDS
The Wildcats have retired eight numbers, more than any club in this series.
Damian Martin and Jesse Wagstaff are two of only four players in NBL history to win six championships. In 2018-19 the pair became the first to win five at a single club. Martin's 53 is retired and he has a trophy named after him; Wagstaff is still the captain.
Ricky Grace won grand final MVP twice, in 1990 and 1993, made four All-NBL First Teams and has his 15 retired.
Andrew Vlahov was grand final MVP in the 1995 championship and his 21 is retired. James Crawford, whose 7 is retired, held the club's single-game scoring record for 38 years until Cotton passed it.
Mike Ellis (6), Scott Fenton (14), Scott Fisher (30) and Shawn Redhage (42) complete the retired numbers.
Bryce Cotton is the most decorated player the club has had: five MVPs, two grand final MVP awards and three championships across nine seasons.
HONOUR ROLL
- Championships: ten, in 1990, 1991, 1995, 2000, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020
- Grand final appearances: 16
- Finals appearances: 39
- Regular season championships: six, in 1991, 1993, 1995, 2010, 2014 and 2019
- NBL Cup: one, in 2021
- NBL Most Valuable Player: Paul Rogers (2000), Kevin Lisch (2012), Bryce Cotton (2018, 2020, 2021, 2024, 2025)
- NBL Grand Final MVP: Ricky Grace (1990, 1993), Pete Hansen (1991), Andrew Vlahov (1995), Marcus Timmons (2000), Kevin Lisch (2010), Jermaine Beal (2014), Damian Martin (2016), Bryce Cotton (2017, 2020), Terrico White (2019)
- Retired numbers: Mike Ellis (6), James Crawford (7), Scott Fenton (14), Ricky Grace (15), Andrew Vlahov (21), Scott Fisher (30), Shawn Redhage (42), Damian Martin (53)
THE MODERN ERA, SEASON BY SEASON
- 2019-20 2nd 19-9 Trevor Gleeson, NBL CHAMPIONS
- 2020-21 2nd 25-11 Trevor Gleeson, lost the Championship Series
- 2021-22 5th 16-12 did not qualify, ending a 35-season finals streak
- 2022-23 6th 15-13 won a play-in game, then out
- 2023-24 2nd 17-11 lost the semi-final series to Tasmania
- 2024-25 3rd 18-11 lost the semi-final series to Melbourne United
- 2025-26 4th 21-12 John Rillie, lost the semi-final series to Sydney
Five finals campaigns in six seasons since the streak ended, and no grand final in any of them. The Wildcats remain hard to beat and have stopped being the team nobody can beat.
FIVE FAST FACTS
1. The Wildcats have won ten NBL championships, four more than any other club.
2. The Wildcats made the finals in 35 consecutive seasons, from 1987 to 2021.
3. Damian Martin and Jesse Wagstaff are two of only four players in NBL history to win six championships, and the first pair to win five at one club.
4. Bryce Cotton scored 59 points against the New Zealand Breakers on 1 December 2024, breaking a club record that had stood for 38 years.
5. The Wildcats have retired eight numbers, including Ricky Grace, Andrew Vlahov and Damian Martin.
CLUB TIMELINE
- 1982: Entered the NBL as the first Western Australian club.
- 1987: Reached their first grand final, beginning a 35-season finals streak.
- 1990 and 1991: Back-to-back championships, the first two of ten.
- 1995 and 2000: A third and fourth title.
- 2007: Jack Bendat bought the club.
- 2010: Fifth championship under Rob Beveridge.
- 2013: Trevor Gleeson appointed, and won five titles in eight seasons.
- 2020: A tenth championship, still the NBL record.
- 2022: Missed the finals for the first time in 35 years.
- 2025: Bryce Cotton left after nine seasons and signed with Adelaide.
- 2026: Finished fourth at 21-12 and lost a semi-final series to Sydney by one point in game one.
WHAT NBL27 LOOKS LIKE
John Rillie has a fourth-placed team, a one-point semi-final loss to the eventual champions, and no Bryce Cotton. That is a better position than the off-season noise suggested it would be.
The measure for Perth has never been making the finals. It is a club with ten championships and a supporter base that counts a 35-season streak as the baseline rather than the achievement. NBL27 is the season in which the post-Cotton team either becomes a contender or becomes merely good, and at this club those are very different things.
