If the pre-season is any guide, the Wollongong Hawks are in for a long season in 2014-15.

Fortunately, pre-season form isn't the most reliable indicator for the future, but the Hawks still have a lot of work to do before next month's first-round home game against Townsville.

Wollongong showed slight improvement in weekend trials against the Cairns Taipans in Cairns, going down by 24 on Friday night and by nine on Saturday night.

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American guard Jahii Carson took no part in either game, failing to overcome a toe injury he picked up the previous weekend at the NBL Blitz in Brisbane.

The visitors were also without centre Larry Davidson, who is returning after a knee injury.

Despite his team's fifth straight loss of the preseason, Hawks coach Gordie McLeod can see an upside.

"It was a tough weekend and that's what we expected, but we made some decent progress," McLeod said. "Going up there and playing with one import in the key position of guard is really going to cause some problems. The team fought very hard and played hard, but we have to find better ways of using the strengths we've got and obviously continue to address areas of improvement. With us, it's always been about getting contributions across the whole team. That's what we need."

Tim Coenraad led Wollongong's scoring with 15 on Friday night and Oscar Forman was able to tally a team-high 14 the following night.

The Hawks were down by 22 in the third quarter of the second game before cutting the margin to six in the final period.

Davidson is an outside chance of being passed fit for the October 10 season-opener against the Crocodiles, while McLeod expects Carson to resume training this week.

"We're just waiting for the feedback from the medical staff. We're hoping he'll get the all-clear to start back today or tomorrow," he said.

"Obviously we need to get Jahii in and playing so we can get the combinations and chemistry all going."

Davidson's absence has taken away some of Wollongong's effectiveness.

Entering his eighth season with the club, the 31-year-old is the Hawks' longest-serving active player.

"Having Larry back would help because his experience and his knowledge of what we do would certainly help our fluency, but we have to get everyone else up to speed," McLeod said.

"We need to get some cohesion between everyone and a better understanding of what we do, then find the different ways we can use the pieces.

"It's both ends of the floor," he said.

"We have to find and refine our offensive and defensive systems.

"There were some good signs in the second game that we'd made some adjustments, so we need to continue that improvement."