While the Hawks improved their record to 3-4 with Friday's 10-point win over Adelaide, the Blaze went down by 15 to Cairns on Saturday to remain winless after seven games.

Joyce coached Wollongong for 11 years before taking over the Gold Coast at the start of last season.

After steering the fledgling franchise into the play-offs, Joyce was confident his relatively unchanged playing roster would return as a force in 2008-09.

But the Blaze will be effectively extinguished for the season if they succumb to the Hawks.

"They don't have a win to their name, but you know they're going to have a break-out game soon and hopefully it won't be against us," Rychart said.

"Brendan coached here for a long time and I'm sure he'd love nothing better to come back and shove it in our faces."

Wollongong are sharing seventh spot with the Sydney Spirit. The Hawks square off with the Spirit on Sunday and a 2-0 week could lift them into the top six.

However, Rychart said beating the Blaze was the priority.

"You can't look ahead because every team is capable of winning, and that's been proven over and over again," the University of Minnesota graduate said.

While the Hawks are 3-1 on their home court, they are 0-3 away from the WEC.

"Winning on the road is what separates the top and bottom teams," Rychart said.

"It was a good win over Adelaide, but it was disappointing to lose to Perth (last Wednesday).

"We've got three or four new guys on the team and it's just taking a little time to gel.

"We're still trying to get our chemistry together, but we feel like we're improving."