Morale still strong as Hawks plunge to fifth

Wollongong coach Gordie McLeod and captain Oscar Forman insist morale remains high among the Hawks, despite losing 10 of their past 12 games.

The Hawks dropped out of the top four for the first time all season with Friday night's 77-70 home loss to Melbourne.

It was their fifth straight defeat at home and left their playoff hopes hanging by a thread with seven games remaining.

Wollongong's task doesn't get any easier this week. They take on red-hot title favourites New Zealand in Auckland on Friday night and return for a Sunday afternoon home clash with surging Townsville.

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Forman said the none of the players or coaches was about to throw in the towel.

"I can't fault anyone," the 31-year-old forward said.

"Morale is good, everyone's positive. We're coming into training and working hard and we go into games expecting to win."

The Hawks have endured a terrible run with injury.

Seven of the club's original 11 contracted players have missed games through injury. Three of those required season-ending knee surgery.

But even with all the injuries and losing, the Hawks refuse to feel sorry for themselves.

The club brought in talented playmaker Malcolm Grant three weeks ago as a replacement for injured import Lance Hurdle, while Australian under 19 guard Mirko Djeric signed with the Hawks last week for the rest of the season.

"The spirit's good," McLeod said.

"The injured guys are helping other guys understand what's going on and what we're doing. It's tough but everyone's pushing the thing in the right direction."

Wollongong battled hard against the Tigers, drawing level in the final quarter after trailing virtually all night.

But they gave up a couple of crucial offensive rebounds in crunch time, allowing Melbourne guards Jonny Flynn and Chris Goulding to nail killer shots in the closing minutes.

"They made a lot of big shots when the clock was running down ... they were daggers," McLeod said.

"Overall we played hard, we had a crack and we won a lot of effort areas, but that doesn't necessarily get you over the line.

"Our turnovers [12] were respectable, but the ones we did make, they made us pay.

"We'll evaluate and move on and try to be better next week, because next week is another big week.

"We have to keep our focus short. There's no use looking down the track.

"It's about recovery and freshening the guys up, then it's coming into work on Monday and making some progress.

"This time of the year, you're usually scouting hard, your systems are in place and you're just making some small tweaks. That's not the reality for us.

"We have to accelerate our development and the guys really have to be switched on at practice."

Forman said the Hawks will go to New Zealand with confidence after going down by a point when they last met in Auckland.

"We have to take what we can from [Friday's loss] and move forward to the New Zealand-Townsville double," he said.

"We have to try and get two wins and get back in the [top] four."