Illawarra ready to punch finals ticket against arch-rivals Sydney

A chance to win our last home game, the series against Sydney and lock ourselves in for finals. 

Thursday night is a huge opportunity for the Illawarra Hawks.

This is the position we wanted to be in all those weeks ago when there were people writing us off after dropping a few close ones and a big schedule on the road to come.

But here we are three games left and ready to see just how far we can go this season.

There are big games to come, the final two of the regular season away to Perth and then Sydney before we see what the playoffs picture looks like. 

The Wildcats may be fourth, but there's the old saying in the NBL about the road to the championship always goes through Perth.

<iframe width="364" height="646" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UoYA1hQlzz8" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

In my time in the NBL, we've never had a home finals series and have been stopped by the Wildcats in some tough battles.

All that matters right now is one more win against Sydney, on our home floor. 

We beat them up there back in December all the talk was about how they had injuries then and how their roster has changed since.

But in even in our toughest times, this Hawks group has always believed we could be a contender and we've shown what we're capable of with some of the wins we've had on the road. 

And no doubt they are a tough team, it's very hard to win 11 in a row in a professional competition.

It would take us to 3-0 against them this season and remove any doubt about being in the playoffs and put us in a position to secure a finals series with two games at home. 

But this club has come such a long way since COVID hit and a new ownership took over and we've started taking it to another level on the court. 

Let's go and win the Freeway Series and make it something really special.