The Wollongong Hawks never had much chance of succeeding this NBL season with the squad they’ve put together but now a disastrous 11-game losing run has seen their fans turn away and the club again struggling for survival.
Wollongong is the last remaining foundation NBL club from when the league formed in 1979 and the Hawks have long batted above their weight. They won a championship in 2001, made grand finals in 2005 and 2010, and more often than not were a playoff contender.
Coach Gordie McLeod, a favourite son, having been an inaugural player, has done a terrific job since taking over for the 2009-10 season. That included a surprise grand final appearance in 2010 and then a stirring run to the playoffs last season.
Despite being a competitive team, Wollongong has been in a long-running battle just to survive, and have only narrowly avoided becoming one of the ever-growing list of NBL clubs on the scrap heap.
Now the Hawks erred in putting the squad together for this season, and considering Wollongong’s financial position, they need to make all the right calls, they never had a realistic hope coming into the season.
Given Wollongong simply can’t come close to spending the full $1 million in the NBL’s salary cap, the Hawks need to make the right decisions with personnel to compete with the financially sound Perth Wildcats, New Zealand Breakers and Melbourne United.
That starts with the imports, and that is where the Hawks haven’t done well. Jahii Carson and Gary Ervin are supremely talented, quick and skilful point guards – but that is exactly the problem, they are very similar players.
Both are point guards, both love having the ball in their hands and running the ship. Both love making a move to the basket, taking a three-point shot off the dribble and be the man on their team.
One of them, whether rookie Carson or the experienced Ervin, would have been a good fit for the Hawks. Having two similar players and with neither cut out to play the shooting guard spot successfully, that’s where the mistakes began for Wollongong.
And it clearly hasn’t worked. Carson is a work in progress in his first season out of college and Ervin looks out of place not being his team’s main point guard.
The other problem this has created is the Hawks could not find another talented import to fill a role they lack firepower in – the two, three and four spots.
With two import point guards and now another one man in Rhys Martin after he was signed to replace forward Dave Gruber, Wollongong has role players taking up those positions with Oscar Forman, Tim Coenraad, Brad Hill, Adam Ballinger and Tyson Demos, but it is sorely lacking a star.
Someone the ilk of Perth’s DeAndre Daniels, Melbourne’s Jordan McRae, Sydney’s Josh Childress or Cairns’ Torrey Craig would have been an ideal fit into the Wollongong team.
For example, if Daniels was with Wollongong, he could be the starting shooting guard with either Ervin or Carson at the point, Coenraad at three, Forman at four and either Larry Davidson or Luke Nevill at centre.
That would leave Martin to back up the import point guard, Demos and Hill in support of Daniels and Coenraad at two and three, Ballinger backing up Forman at the four and then the centre position is solid with Nevill and Davidson.
That line-up would certainly be more competitive than the one that now looks certain wooden spooners with two point guards who are far too similar to have ever been thought of teaming together.
The other problem that a struggling Wollongong team presents is that it makes it hard for clubs to build any interest in their home matches when the Hawks come to town.
A team like Townsville is already struggling enough with disastrous crowd numbers so far this season since moving to the RSL Stadium from the Entertainment Centre, but on Sunday night they had no hope of attracting people to watch the Hawks. The result was only 1370 watching as their team won by 32 points.
It would be irresponsible for the Hawks to blame their lack of money and resources for their plight. While that might explain not being able to match the might of Perth, New Zealand and even Melbourne, Townsville is providing an example of making the most of what you have.
Townsville could very well have less money and less in terms of resources available than Wollongong, but coach Shawn Dennis and his team put together a team that would give them a chance to compete this season.
Again the imports are crucial and they decided to go with two bigs who give decidedly different things – Mickell Gladness is a defensive monster and Brian Conklin a prolific scorer.
The Crocs then have a veteran point guard Steve Markovic to help youngsters Mitch Norton and Mirko Djeric, while there is a good blend of flexibility, talent and experience through Todd Blanchfield, Clint Steindl, Leon Henry and Jacob Holmes through the two, three and four spots.
That is a good, balanced line-up that gives the Crocs a chance to compete despite not being able to spend the money in the salary cap or on their resources off the court.
Having now lost 11 straight games to sit on a 1-11 record with just 16 games of the season to go, it’s too late for Wollongong to turn things around to make a run for the playoffs. It’s not too late to make some necessary changes to give their loyal, but dwindling, fan-base something to cheer for over the next four months.
Wollongong simply can’t afford to lose for the rest of the season or else the average home crowd that sits at 2650 so far could fall down under the 2000 mark, and the future of the club could again come into serious jeopardy. There might be no more miracles left to keep them afloat.
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