Hawks focus on taking care of business at home
15 Mar 2022
1
min read


Illawarra Hawks skipper AJ Ogilvy explains how important this Thursday's home game against the South East Melbourne Phoenix is, during this week's Illawarra Mercury 'Captain's Call'.
All that matters right now is one game at home against South East Melbourne.
Everyone at the Hawks knows there's a tough run ahead with a lot of games on the road, but we also need to make sure we win the three home games we have left, starting on Thursday night.
Beating the Phoenix in Melbourne last time gave the group real confidence in what we were doing, knowing we were able to fight back when we need to.
We're working really hard and seeing guys like Isaac White and Xavier Rathan-Mayes making really important plays around the regular starters.
It's been hard to match up on Tasmania, they play small ball and fight for everything, so we'll have to adjust when we meet them again on Saturday.
Like us, they want to stay in the playoffs race.
But there was something in the way we fought back in Sunday's 81-77 loss, which showed we're never beaten.
The intensity and effort we've produced in the second halves against both Phoenix and the Jackjumpers is what we have to keep delivering now.
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There's a belief there that we can find a way and it will give us some confidence going into an important week.
Another trip to Tasmania on Saturday is the first of six remaining away games to finish the season.
However, we have to make sure we're winning games on our court and that includes the Phoenix and Sydney, who are in finals contention as well.
We're going to need to beat these top four teams when finals come around, so the time has come to start building that momentum again, having won three in a row before Sunday's game.
It's exciting to be part of the official indigenous round game in Wollongong on Thursday.
Hopefully, we see a huge crowd on hand and get behind us.
Seats available via Ticketmaster.

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