![\"Jesse](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/50d37a5c4a781bdb6a2ffbcb6b992dd7ebd0ed5a.jpg\")
Camera IconJesse Wagstaff says he feels no different than recent years. Credit: Paul Kane\/Getty Images<\/p>\nPerth Wildcats legend Jesse Wagstaff turned down a chance to confirm he would return for an 18th NBL campaign in the wake of his side\u2019s season-ending semifinal loss to Sydney Kings.<\/p>\n
The Kings ensured the Wildcats progressed no further than the competition\u2019s final four for the third year running by claiming a 14-point victory at RAC Arena on Saturday night, which secured a clean sweep of their series.<\/p>\n
In his 540th appearance for Perth, Wagstaff made a pair of three-pointers \u2014 including one in the all-important fourth quarter, when he was called upon by John Rillie after Ben Henshall limped from the court late in the third \u2014 hauled in two rebounds and dished out one assist.<\/p>\n
The club\u2019s all-time games-played record-holder and long-serving captain\u2019s future has been a year-by-year proposition over recent seasons as he has signed a series of one-year contracts.<\/p>\n
When asked whether he had made a call on on his future, the 39-year-old remained coy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a discussion for later,\u201d Wagstaff said.<\/p>\n
Wagstaff played only spot minutes throughout most of the season but had plenty of productive moments, including an 18-point, seven-rebound showing against Adelaide 36ers in the last game of the regular season and throwing down a rare dunk against Cairns Taipans.<\/p>\n
He said the way his body was coping at the conclusion of another campaign was \u201cstock standard\u201d in comparison to recent years.<\/p>\n
Camera IconJesse Wagstaff says he feels no different than recent years. Credit: Paul Kane\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t feel any different from the past,\u201d Wagstaff said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy role has rarely changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got some great staff who are much smarter than I who you listen to and take little bits from and hope for the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wildcats were without Dylan Windler for the elimination game due to a plantar fascia injury he re-aggravated on the final play of their thrilling one-point loss to the Kings on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
But Wagstaff refused to use the import forward\u2019s absence as an excuse for their exit at the hands of the minor premiers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course you want (to be at) full strength, but at the end of the day, it\u2019s professional sport,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery team dealt with some injury concerns throughout the year. I think if you look at it all and sum it all up, there was some teams that copped it a hell of a lot worse than us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perth Wildcats legend Jesse Wagstaff turned down a chance to confirm he would return for an 18th NBL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,15056,588,85],"class_list":["post-541340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-perth-wildcats","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}