BIO: Corey Shervill was born in Perth (WA) and began playing basketball as a junior with the Willetton Tigers basketball program. He later attended Aquinas College Menai where he earned a bronze medal at the Australian National School Championships.

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.

On 24 November 2020, Shervill signed with the Perth Wildcats as a development player. This season, Perth struggled during the early stages of NBL21 as the league fought through a number of Covid obstacles. After losing Terrico White and Nick Kay to overseas offers, they chose to sign John Mooney to fill the enormous gap left in the team’s frontcourt. However, when the NBL chose to reduce the number of import roster spots from three to two, Perth was also unable to re-sign import Miles Plumlee. After multiple delays to the start of the season, the competition began but without a permanent schedule, resulting in teams finding out each week who and where they would play depending on Covid travel limitations.

Perth struggled to find wins during this time, and after five rounds, they sat in seventh place, which is when the league made the decision to move all teams to Melbourne, where it would play eight games as part of the NBL Cup, an attempt to continue the season while escaping Covid related travel restrictions.

It was there Bryce Cotton (23.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, 5.6 assists, and 1.5 steals) would boost his production, a move which in turn, allowed new signing Todd Blanchfield (via Illawarra) to benefit from the space provided from Cotton’s brilliance and deliver a career-best season. Blanchfield (15.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.6 assists) would set a Wildcat record for most three-pointers made in a season and paired nicely with Mooney (16.9 points, 11.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.3 steals) to form a powerful trio that soon led Perth back to the top of the ladder.

As the season entered it’s final round it seemed the Wildcats would be hoisting a third straight championship trophy. Fate would intervene, however, with Cotton suffering a season-ending injury during a loss to Melbourne (64–78) in their last game of the season. Cotton would go on to be selected as the league’s Most Valuable Player but was unable to suit up during in Perth’s playoff run.

After Melbourne knocked Perth out of the top spot on the ladder in round 13, a strong finish to the season saw United finish in first place (28-8), while Perth (25-11) claimed second position. After losing the opening game to Illawarra (72–74), Perth received a boost from Luke Tavers (13 points and 10 rebounds), who, alongside John Mooney (18 points and 10 rebounds) led the Wildcats to a game two victory (79-71). In game three, Blanchfield (24 points and 5 rebounds) and Mitchell Norton (15 points and 4 rebounds) would step up in Cotton’s absence in game three and lift the undermanned squad over the Illawarra Hawks (79-71) in what was a wild semi-final series.

The Wildcats would then face off against a red-hot Melbourne United, who finished the regular season in first place and had been equally impressive all year.

Both games, one and two, were forced to be played in Perth due to travel restrictions. Despite a hot game from Blanchfield (27 points and 7 rebounds), United survived game one, winning by three points (70–73). Game two followed a similar story as Chris Goulding (21 points) and Jock Landale (12 points and 17 rebounds) proved too good for the limping Wildcats, falling short in game two also (74-83).

With Norton (8.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 3.6 assists) battling through injury to end the season, the team’s backcourt became even weaker. Despite Kevin White’s best efforts, stepping up to deliver the best three-game performance of his career (10 points in game one, 12 points in game two and 14 points in game three), Perth were never in the series.. With restrictions lifted, game three was held on Melbourne’s home court and in front of a sold-out 5,000-strong crowd at John Cain Arena (the maximum allowed within Covid restrictions). United defeated Perth 81-76 in game three behind a truly dominant performance from Jock Landale (15 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 assists and 2 blocks). Landale would be named Finals MVP award as Melbourne collected their sixth NBL championship, their second under the United branding.

Shervill played his first game for the Wildcats in February and went on to average 2.6 points and 1.4 rebounds across 30 games, while shooting 40 per cent from the field. He had a season-high nine points in a win over Melbourne United in his fourth game and entered the Wildcats’ starting five for two grand final games.

2021/22
On 7 July 2021, Shervill re-signed with the Wildcats on a two-year deal, remaining a development player for NBL22 but with an option to move into the full roster the following season. Before the season began, he suffered a Jones fracture in his foot and immediately had surgery which kept him off the court for the majority of the season. While Shervill recovered from injury, coach Trevor Gleeson would leave the team 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 an 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.

Shervill managed to appear in only two games for the season, 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, Perth appointed former Townsville Crocodiles star John Rilllie as the club’s new head coach (three-year deal). Shortly after the club re-signed Bryce Cotton (3 Year Deal), Jesse Wagstaff (1 Year Deal), Todd Blanchfield (3 Year Deal). With Perth retaining the majority of the roster, only Kevin White (to Illawarra) and Matt Hodgson (to Taiwan) did not return, Corey Webster (via Europe) and development player Kyle Zunic (elevated from development player to the full roster) were brought in to replace them. Rounding 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 Wildcats 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.

With six games remaining in the regular season, Perth added Tai Webster to their roster after he was released from his team in Turkey, reuniting him with his brother Corey. Following the signing of 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 another Perth loss would see United finish sixth and the Wildcat’s eliminated from Finals or a Perth win allowing them to advance to the postseason.

While the Kings were able to lock down Cotton (7 points), Perth got big games out of Corey Webster (26 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists), Luke Travers (22 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists) and Brady Manek (21 points, 9 rebounds and 2 steals) to deliver an upset victory (96-84) against the league leading Kings.

The win saw Perth (15-13) claim sixth place on the ladder and advance into the league’s inaugural play-in tournament. There, they would face South East Melbourne in a game where they trailed the entire game until the fourth quarter. During the final term, the Wildcat’s outscored the Phoenix (41-23) and moved on the second round of the play-in tournament, on the back of a seven-point win (106-99). Perth then met Cairns in a game where the winner would advance to the semifinals as the fourth seed.

Although Cairns entered the game without their leading scorer and rebounder Keanu Pinder, a history making effort from DJ Hogg (32 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists) delivered the end to the Wildcats’ season.

Shervill trained with the Brisbane Bullets during the 2023–24 NBL season

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 (815 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.