The Wollongong Hawks are days away from appointing new leaders to pilot the club into basketball's controversial new era.Yesterday Basketball Australia confirmed the 2009-10 NBL season would definitely go ahead, with or without an eighth team.Wollongong are one of seven clubs to gain a spot in the revamped competition, while attempts to secure an eighth Victorian-based team were still in the pipeline.
Victoria may save the day in quest for eighth NBL teamA seven-member Hawks board, which has been in place since last month has been working in the background, interviewing potential candidates for the vacant chief executive and head coaching positions.Hawks chairman Peter Bahlmann said the club was close to making an announcement."I'm not at liberty to say too much at this stage, but we've pretty well mapped what the various positions will be in terms of how we'll be structuring our front office staff and we should be able to name our new CEO within the week," Bahlmann said.Several people have been tossed around to fill the role of coach.Eric Cooks was at the helm in the past two seasons and remains available, former Adelaide coach Phil Smyth was said to be keen on applying, while speculation was rife that former Hawks coach Brendan Joyce was rumoured to be interested in returning to the club he guided to the 2001 NBL title.However, it is believed former Hawks star and ex-West Sydney and Singapore coach Gordon McLeod is the club's first-choice candidate.Bahlmann would not be coaxed into elaborating."I'm not in a position to name names, but we've certainly had good discussions with someone and that's really all we can say at the moment," he said."Once the formalities are in place and there's a green light from Basketball Australia that the league is definitely moving forward into a new season, we'll be in a position to say more."BA is almost certain to set the league salary cap at $1 million per team, although the Hawks are unlikely to spend that much as they assemble their playing roster for 2009-10.Wollongong did have four players under contract for next season, but BA has declared all contracts null and void, leaving every club to start from scratch in the rebuilding process."We've been in talks with various players and those discussions have been progressing well," Bahlmann said.The 28-game season will tip off in October and is expected to run through to February.
