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Left fielder, right fielder, centre fielder, first baseman, second baseman, third baseman, shortstop, catcher, pitcher - Massey did it all and became the first player in Cavalry history to do so.

His move to first base raised plenty of eyebrows - Boss Moanaroa has had a mortgage on that spot for six years before Massey rolled in to fire up a #MasseyWatch hashtag on social media.

It was a nightmare for live stream commentators, who threw game notes out the window in favour of a whiteboard to accommodate for the round-the-world effort.

The Cavalry will now head south to face the Melbourne Aces in a sudden-death wildcard playoff as part of a revamped five-team ABL finals format.

The top two sides from the ABL's Northeast and Southwest conferences secure a finals berth, with Canberra gifted a lifeline as the team with the next-best record.

The Cavalry will face Melbourne (No. 4 seed) for the right to advance to a three-game series on the road against the Brisbane Bandits after they clinched top-seed in a nail-biter against Geelong-Korea.

But for some time it seemed the Cavalry would be heading to Melbourne on a run of outs after the Heat claimed an early 2-0 advantage before Zach Wilson doubled to send Cam Warner through for a score.

Michael Crouse fired off a two-run homer before Perth levelled the score at the top of the fifth through a Tristan Gray single.

Canberra broke the deadlock at the bottom of the eighth as Crouse and Moanaroa drove in runs to give the hosts a lead they refused to surrender as they set their sights on regaining the Claxton Shield.

Canberra have not tasted the ultimate success since their maiden triumph in 2012-13 with the club desperate to go one better than their grand final defeat last season.