How to watch & talking points: Perth v Illawarra

31 Oct 2026

perth wildcats

illawarra hawks

The Perth Wildcats take on a desperate Illawarra Hawks at RAC Arena.

By

NBL.com.au

Perth Wildcats v Illawarra Hawks
Saturday, October 31, 9.30pm AEDT
RAC Arena

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How to watch

Watch every NBL27 game live on ESPN, and Saturday hoops on 9Go! and 9Now.

>> How to watch ESPN

Tickets

>> Ticketing information

How to follow & live scores

Live scores, stats, breaking news and game highlights are available via the free NBL App.

>> Visit Game Centre | Download the free NBL App

Rosters

Perth

Depth chart:
PG: Knight (IP) / Rillie (DP) / Sam (DP) / Whitt (NRP) (out)
SG: Pepper / Dell'Orso / Kopa (DP)
SF: Windler (IP) / Huefner / Nielsen (DP) (out)
PF: Doolittle (IP) / Higgins-Titsha / Wagstaff
C: Brandt / Lual-Acuil Jr. (out)

Illawarra

Depth chart:
PG: M.Doyle (IP) / Hickey / Adnam (NRP)
SG: Harvey / Narkle
SF: Swaka Lo Buluk / Grida / Patterson (IP/NRP) / Blanchfield
PF: Martin (IP) / Days (IP) / A.Doyle (DP) / McGregor (DP) / Peatling (out)
C: Froling / Maker / Macdonald (DP)

Missing in action

Perth

Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. - Calf - Round 11
Blake Nielsen - ACL - Season
Jimmy Whitt - Personal Reasons - TBC

Illawarra

Mason Peatling - Foot - Season

>> View full injury list

Talking points

Now or never

The Hawks are bottom of the table with just two wins from their opening 10 games, and with no roster changes on the horizon, it’s now or never.

The silver lining for Justin Tatum and his team is that just a couple of wins separate second and ninth in the standings, so they’re far from out of contention.

However, their task of picking up a much-needed win got a little harder when the Perth Wildcats dropped their Ignite Cup game to the Sydney Kings.

The Red Army will be fired up, and the desperation of both teams will be on full display in this one.