Wollongong coach Gordie McLeod has urged his entire squad to indulge in some soul-searching in the wake of Wednesday night's meltdown against Adelaide.The Hawks did not play with their usual focus, energy and poise in the 23-point drubbing from the 36ers, suffering countless defensive breakdowns and hitting just 28 per cent of their shots.They will be aiming to avoid a third-straight loss when they tackle the Breakers next Thursday in New Zealand.
Full coverage of the Wollongong Hawks McLeod said his side had no excuses for the uncharacteristically inept display and believes responsibility should be evenly shared."What we have to make sure we do is evaluate the whole thing," he said."The whole process we have to go through, looking at ourselves individually as players and coaches and what we do, and looking at how we could've done things better and how the Sixers took some things away from us."We just didn't have enough guys playing at the level they need to be at. We have to look in the mirror at ourselves - not only the players but the coaching staff - and say, 'Hey, we didn't get the team ready enough to go out and play this game'. That's the approach we have to take. It's not about pointing fingers, it never is."We wanted to play a certain way and we didn't do a very good job of that, and we all have to take some responsibility. "As a team, we've got to work on our system and put some counters in to help when people start taking things from us."The Sixers did a good job of unsettling their opponents by closely guarding playmakers Tywain McKee and Rhys Martin.However, the Hawks should take heart from the likelihood they will not shoot as poorly again for the rest of the season."This is a tough league we're playing in and there's a very fine line between the penthouse and the outhouse," McLeod said."Every game we play is a test of character in our books. That's what it's all about, and we got really tested (on Wednesday)."In this competition, there's going to be nights when things just don't go right or someone else is really hot - and that happened to us."That really shows the grit and grind of what you go through. It shows what you have to get down and do, and we've got a long way to go as a group and you're going to take your hits."It's going to show a lot about us with how we bounce back from this. We now travel and play against New Zealand, a good team who are getting better. "To play them on their court is going to be a test. We want to go there and play hard for four quarters and certainly play better than we played (against Adelaide)."
