Hawks Looking for Form U-Turn on Road Trip

Playing at home tends to be looked upon more favourably than playing on the road in the NBL, but Illawarra forward Dan Grida believes the Hawks' upcoming away fixtures offer the perfect opportunity for the struggling side to turn its season around.

Illawarra is currently marooned at the bottom of the table with a 1-8 record. After winning in Round 2 against South East Melbourne the Hawks have gone on to lose seven straight fixtures by an average of 16 pointes per game – including three straight 25+ point losses.

An interesting trend has emerged in NBL23, with teams becoming more likely to walk away with a victory when on the road. In Round 6 alone five of the seven games were won by the away side.

“We’ve had a tough start but there’s nothing to say we can’t bring this back,” Grida told the Illawarra Mercury.

“Right now we’re 1-8. People aren’t expecting much from us so we should be playing with no fear, no pressure.

“If we come out with nothing to lose being on the road – that’s the ideal opportunity to try and snag some [wins].

“When you’re on the road you do everything together. You live together, you eat together … hopefully that brings us together a little bit more and we’ll se how that treats us.”

The Hawks only need to travel as far as up the highway for their only clash of Round 7, when they enter Qudos Bank Arena to take on reigning champions and local rivals Sydney ahead of a Round 8 meeting with the Phoenix.

“Everyone knows how much we’d love to beat the Kings, so it’d be good to go get one up there and then we’re off to Melbourne after that,” Grida said.

“We’ve made the playoffs the last two years which people seem to forget … the top six make [the playoffs] this year which is huge for us with the start we’ve had.”

For the full story head to >> Road stretch could prove just the ticket for battling Hawks