Perth Wildcats coach John Rillie enjoying his galvanised team’s approach to repeatedly playing interstate

Perth Wildcats coach John Rillie feels his team’s impressive run of wins on the road has galvanised the group as they get closer to playing at RAC Arena again. The Wildcats will play in Tasmania on Sunday and then in Brisbane on Wednesday as part of seven consecutive matches away from home. They will then finish the regular season with five home games from their final six matches. The club struggled with away games in the first half of the season and Rillie said the players had done well to make the most of this challenge. “It’s been a good stretch of games for us but we still have a couple of more away so we can’t get ahead of ourselves. What I think it’s done is allow us to galvanise as a team and just build a bit of confidence through winning on the road because at the start of the year we struggled on the road. Through this period, up to date, we have been very good,” he said. While the Wildcats have travelled extensively, they will be the fresher team on Sunday given Tasmania will have already played two matches this week before confronting Perth. The Wildcats will also benefit from the return of import Kristian Doolittle from a groin injury but will still be missing guard Tai Webster (hamstring). Tasmania also have injury worries with Sean Macdonald joining Will Magnay on the sidelines this week. Doolittle has missed five matches after breaking down early in the loss to Illawarra on December 6. Rillie said the club would take the learnings from how Keanu Pinder has played since returning from illness to help Doolittle have as big an impact as possible. “KP has come back and been phenomenal with the way that he’s played. But we have allowed him to get back up to speed at his own pace. Hopefully we can do the same for Kristian,” Rillie said. “We’ve got to be mindful of him coming back after an extended period on the sidelines. He’s usually someone who you are logging 33-36 minutes a game. It would be unfair on him for me to think we can just throw him into the deep end. But then also, thinking about our next 10 or 12 days in how we can progress him through those. “It’s great to have Kristian back. It’s his importance both offensively and defensively. He’s our team’s leading rebounder so to bring that back into the group is nice. I’m looking forward to that.”