BIO: Corey Shervill was born in Perth (WA) and began playing basketball as a junior with the Willetton basketball program. He later attended Aquinas College Menai.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Corey Shervill made his NBL debut with the Perth Wildcats at 28 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

This season, Perth would see Trevor Gleeson, who coached the team to five championships in seven seasons, leave to coach in the NBA with the Toronto Raptors. The Wildcats would then suffer another blow, losing mid-season signing Will Magnay and half of Perth’s bench rotation (Clint Steindl, Jarrad Weeks, and Jarred Bairstow), all signing multi-year deals to play for Tasmania under former Wildcats assistant Scott Roth.

Perth then looked to rebuild its squad, bringing in US coach Scott Morrison to replace Gleeson, adding imports Vic Law (via Brisbane) Michael Frazier III and signing Matthew Hodgson (via Brisbane) with their last free roster spot.

Perth played its first five games at home before playing 14 games away due to the border closures resulting from COVID-19. Despite the obstacle of being away from family and friends, the Wildcats spent the majority of the year in the top four and were a consensus favourite to make the Grand Final.

Perth, who were second on the ladder (13-6), returned to Western Australia to play their last nine games, all at home. During that time, the team decided to replace Frazier with big man John Brown III, who flew into the country and began training only to receive the news that his former team would not provide a clearance in time for him to make the playoffs.

A season ending knee injury saw Law (20.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 1.7 assists) shut down with only a few games to go, while Cotton (22.7 points, 3.8 rebounds, 4.9 assists, and 1.4 steals) also missed several games during the run home. This resulted in Perth winning only three of their nine home games and heading into their last game needing to defeat South East Melbourne to reach the playoffs. Perth entered the game sitting in fourth place, with their playoff chances on the line, but when the team built a eight-point lead in the second half, it seemed a lock that the Wildcats would return to the playoffs for the 37th season in a row. The Phoenix, however, fought back and ended the Wildcats’ extraordinary run of finals campaigns with a thrilling two-point overtime win, ending the team’s run of consecutive playoff appearances, a streak which had begun in 1986.

In his first year in the league, Shervill struggled to find opportunities to play, appearing in only two games and scoring a total of nine points.

2022/23
After missing the playoffs for the first time in 35 years under Canadian coach, Scott Morrison announced he was leaving after just one season so he could return home for family reasons. In his place, the Wildcat’s appointed former Townsville Crocodiles star John Rillie as the club’s new head coach on a three-year deal.

Perth retained the majority of its roster, with only Kevin White (to Illawarra) and Matt Hodgson (to Taiwan) not returning. Perth re-signed Bryce Cotton (3 Year Deal), Todd Blanchfield (3 Year Deal) and Jesse Wagstaff (1 Year Deal) and elevated backup guard Kyle Zunic from development player to the full roster. Corey Webster, who the Wildcats had signed to a deal in 2017 only to see him leave before the season started, signed as a free agent. To round out the roster, imports TaShawn Thomas (France) and Brady Manek (North Carolina) were added for some additional scoring punch.

Rillie’s squad began the season nicely, notching up three wins in a row and looking like the Wildcat’s of old as they sat on top of the NBL ladder. This was then met with a five game losing streak and drop to seventh place, where they hung around until the final month of the season.

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Perth also added Tai Webster to the roster with eight games remaining, reuniting him with his brother Corey. Following the signing of Tai Webster, Shervill was released from the Wildcat’s 11-man roster.

The team’s final three games saw them lose to Tasmania (102–94) after allowing the JackJumpers to outscore them 27-15 across the final 10 minutes. A crucial loss to Cairns Taipans (84-71) set up a nail-biting last round where Perth needed to defeat the league leading Sydney Kings to avoid elimination. On the back of a upset victory (96-84) Perth (15-13) claimed sixth place on the ladder and advanced into the league’s inaugural play-in tournament.

After defeating the South East Melbourne Phoenix they would fall short against the Cairns Taipans and miss out on making the semi finals for the second year in a row. Shervill appeared in just six games for the Wildcats, failing to score.

Corey Shervill played three seasons the Perth Wildcats. He averaged 2.2 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 0.2 assists in 38 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (798 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.