Faces in the crowd: HawkHead Carl Stanbridge

During the Illawarra Hawks' 43-year existence, 221 players have pulled on the club's jersey.

But the number of fans who have supported the foundation club during that period is exponentially more.

As such, the club has decided to profile some of the most prominent and longest-serving HawkHeads with our new 'faces in the crowd' series.

After profiling Illawarra's three intern coaches and long-time HawkHead Phil Brown, we decided to feature a man who loves to 'fly under the radar' Carl Stanbridge.

"My love for the Hawks started when I was a boy and my father used to bring me to Hawks games when Geordie McLeod was running the show for the team at the Snakepit," Stanbridge said.

"I even feature in the bottom right corner of the Geordie banner that hangs in the Premier's Room for every pre-game function."

A couple of years later, in 1990, Stanbridge started his own association with the foundation club.

"At the time, I was doing some work at Chuck Harmison's house and he asked me if I'd help fix up the end-court boxes, which were falling apart," the 57-year-old said.

"Of course, I took it on and fixed them to the best of my ability.

"I obviously did an okay job because the next season, they asked me to paint the aluminium and add cushions to them for supporters.

"I also played a role in helping the boxes transition across to acrylic when the club thought the time was right - actually building them all myself in my garage in Bulli.

"My two daughters, who were playing junior representative basketball at the time, even helped me assemble and dissemble them on game days too - we all just loved to help the Hawks where we could."

Then when the time came to upgrade them, Standbridge assisted Thomas Creative to build them.

"Having previously built show stands, I had a couple of ideas on how these new boxes could work and how they could be put up and down fast," said Stanbridge, whose son was also involved in Hawks' gamedays as part of the i98FM Street Fleet.

"On top of that, we also couriered up pieces of acrylic from Melbourne and got them here the day before a game in 2020 - which saw my good mate Arthur Booth (also a Hawks life member) and I using hairdryers to make them more pliable and able to bend more easily.

"Despite our best efforts, we were informed these COVID-19 safe boxes failed by 110mm, meaning we had to keep working on them and add running repairs until an hour before the game - the Melbourne players had just started warming up and we were just finishing the screens for the boxes.

"Getting them done, against all odds, is one of my most satisfying moments at the Hawks, along with getting the ring up after it collapsed in March 29, 2021 - to ensure the match wasn't abandoned.

"To be honest, that was the longest game I can remember, watching guys continually swing on that ring."

Another aspect of the WIN Entertainment Centre that Stanbridge has conducted running repairs on during a game is the roof when Wollongong had been the victim of huge downfalls.

During his long-time association with the club, Standbridge has built out the boxes of every game, bar six, since 1990.

"The only games I've missed is because I've attended things like a One Direction concert with my daughter," he laughed.

"Although, I did listen to the game via radio in the carpark."

It wasn't just his handy work that helped the Wollongong-based club, he also sponsored numerous players over the years, including Tyson Demos, help with decals, put cushions down on certain seats at home fixtures, housed players at his downstairs unit (including Cam Tragardh) and distribute stat sheets during home fixtures - all stemming from his love for the game.

"Arthur Booth, who has done as much for the Hawks as I've seen, and I can watch anyone play basketball - we just love the game that much," said Stanbridge, who also remains good friends with former Hawk Dene MacDonald.

"Obviously, the fact the Hawks are from my hometown, makes this team even more special - not to mention we're both considered underdogs.

"This love for the game has allowed me to develop real, ever-lasting comradeship over the years.

"From Mat Campbell, who I've been great mates with for years, to Sav [Glen Saville] and Ben Knight, who used to just walk into my house, unannounced, and say 'I'm hungry - so a couple of us would park up in my theatre room and watch games of basketball together, which allowed him to get away from everyone for a couple of hours."

Another memory he holds dear to his heart was when club stalwart Tim Coenraad announced he was retiring for the first time.

"I remember the first time Tim was retiring and I was standing next to his mum during his final game, so I decided to present her with his first-ever game jersey framed, which I still had from 2009," he said.

"It was a really special moment, as I'd become close with Tim during his time here at the Hawks."

All those Hawks, as well as Demos (who he labelled the funniest player), Tyler Harvey (who he rates as one of the most exciting players) and Damon Lowery are rated as Stanbridge's favourite individuals to pull on the Wollongong-based club's jersey.

"Damon was just one of those players who always seemed to come through with the goods when we needed him to," he explained.

"What made my affection towards Damon even fonder is when we returned to Wollongong for a dinner after years away from the area, he came up and gave me a hug from behind and we hit it straight back off - that's what 20 years of friendship will do."

More recently, Stanbridge has worked closely with Hawks manager - operations and events Joe Tertzakian.

"I quickly found out that when Joe said he'd be somewhere, like the WIN Entertainment Centre, at 5pm, it really meant be there at 4pm," said Stanbridge, who emphasised that there are so many good people working behind the scenes at the Hawks.

"He's incredible at what he does and compared to all the guys I've seen in similar roles to him over the years, there's no one like him - we're very lucky to have him at the club."

Furthermore to that, Stanbridge is extremely pleased with the current direction of the Hawks, led by Jacob Jackomas.

"The impact that Brian [Goorjian], Jacob and Shaun [Roger] have made on the team has been incredible and given the whole community plenty of confidence," said Stanbridge, who admits that semi-final crowd against Sydney was one of the most electric he's ever experienced.

"As great as Goorj has been, I have complete faith in Jacob to continue to build going into next year, as I just love the way he approaches the game.

"During the game, I tend to keep an eye on the bench and Jacob's always got a finger on the pulse - in all my years, I've never seen an assistant coach so aware of what the other team is doing than Jacob.

"Having been here for all the highs and lows of the team over the past few decades, I'm excited for what the future holds, because the team plays the right way, by getting up and down the floor, pushing the pace and producing entertaining basketball that the fans can get around."