Could Wagstaff break all-time Wildcats record?

At 37 years of age Jesse Wagstaff is certainly closer to the end of his storied playing career than the beginning, and following the potential retirement rumour that reared its head at the end of NBL23, the veteran forward says “there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge” for him to play on next season.

Wagstaff is closing in on the all-time appearance record for the Wildcats that is currently held by NBL legend Ricky Grace. The import suited up a staggering 482 times for Perth between 1990 and 2005, and represented Australia at the Sydney Olympics after his naturalisation.

Heading into Round 17 Wagstaff is sitting on 465 career appearances. Even if he were to play in each of the remaining regular season games, and every possible post-season fixture, he would end the season just one appearance shy of Grace’s record. 

To break the record, another season is a must. 

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“There’s a lot of water to go under that bridge.

“I don’t feel too old physically or mentally, but there’s certainly a different generation coming through, I’ve got almost two decades on some of our youngest players, so I certainly feel old in that regard. It is a privilege, I feel very, very lucky to be able to do this for as long as I have and it’s one of the best jobs in the world, I think.

“Someone said to me my eldest child is closer in age to them (teammates) than they are to me, so that was fairly sobering.”

Wagstaff is currently tied with former CJ Bruton, David Stiff and former Wildcats teammate Damian Martin with a record six NBL titles as a player. If Perth was to continue its run of near impeccable form into and through this season’s Finals, he could end the campaign as the sole player to win seven career championships.

The longest the former Rookie of the Year has gone without winning an NBL title is four years, first between 2010 and 2014, and secondly between 2020 and the present day.

Wagstaff says he always has one eye on the ultimate glory, but that there’s plenty to play out in the regular season before another title triumph comes front of mind.

“It’s always in there, that’s what you play seasons for, you want to win and want to end on a win at the end of the year,” he said.

“I’d certainly love to win another championship – I’m not trying to hide that – but there’s nine other teams that would also like it.

“We still have six games left, and that’s almost a quarter of the year. A lot can happen, I’m certainly not going to say take it one day at a time, but we have four really important weeks coming up in terms of Playoff setting, and even making it.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done.”

The Wildcats host the Illawarra Hawks tonight at 9:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo.