BASKETBALL
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Injured Wollongong Hawks centre Larry Davidson is on schedule to resume training next week.
Davidson has been out for six weeks with a knee injury and missed all five preseason games.
He won't make the trip to north Queensland for this weekend's trials against the Cairns Taipans, but he hopes to line up for the NBL season opener against Townsville on October 10 at WIN Entertainment Centre.
"It's going good," Davidson said on Wednesday.
"I'm gradually progressing on to newer things each week. I'm increasing the strength stuff and getting used to the running and agility stuff again. The good thing is that there's been no setbacks when I've gone up to try something else.
"We're hoping next week I can start doing some stuff on the court."
The 31-year-old, who has endured a history of knee injuries, had trained strongly during the preseason. The layoff has tested his patience.
"You do all the off-season and preseason training, and then you have to sit around, so it's a bit frustrating," he said.
"The positive is that I've been through it all before, so you kind of understand a bit more that you can't rush these things, that it's a long season and you want to get it right.
"But at the same time it's pretty frustrating, not being able to get out there, especially because we've got a bit of a new group.
"I haven't trained with Jahii (Carson) and Gary (Ervin) since they got here. Hopefully it won't take long to get into a rhythm."
The Hawks have lost the past three trials by nine, 25 and 19, but Davidson says "it's not panic stations".
"Some good things have definitely come out of these games, but there's a lot of stuff we can work on, which I think is a positive, especially at this time of the year," he said.
"I guess if you're winning these games then it might give you a bit of a false sense of you playing well. You don't want to be saying, 'We look pretty good so what can we work on?' Obviously you'd like to play well and win games, but you'd rather have stuff that you need to work on.
"It's good that we've got a couple of games this weekend because it'll be a good test to try and put that stuff in and see if we can adapt. That's going to be one of the big challenges this season with short turnarounds between games.
"Jahii hasn't played in the NBL before and we are a new group, so I think the preseason is all just a learning experience, and as long as we learn from it, it's all positive."