He was destined to become the starting centre sooner or later, but Luke Nevill has been thrust straight into the hot seat for the Wollongong Hawks after a virus sidelined enforcer Dave Gruber.

Gruber was Wollongong’s starting centre for most of last season and arguably his team’s most consistent player.

But the recent signing of the 2.18m Nevill would’ve had Gruber preparing to revert to his previous role as a spark plug off the bench.

When illness forced Gruber out of round one games against Townsville and Sydney, Nevill’s elevation to the starting five was official.

He tallied 17 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and two blocks on debut in Friday’s 92-83 defeat of Townsville.

He made just 3/9 shots in Saturday night’s 86-83 road loss to Sydney, but still finished with six points, nine rebounds and three blocks in 17 minutes.

Hawks coach Gordie McLeod is determined to get the best out of Nevill, who is with his fourth NBL club in four seasons.

‘‘He brought a presence,’’ McLeod said after the win over Crocodiles.

‘‘We’re getting used to Luke and how we can best use him at both ends of the floor, and that’s the challenge for us. He’s been thrown in the deep end. He’s had five practices with us, so considering that, he’s done extremely well.

‘‘We’ve got quickness but we need to have a two-tempo system. We have to find the best way to use Luke offensively and defensively. Our system in the past has been to try and drag big guys like that away, so we have to find a couple of different ways to play.

‘‘It’s the same with the other guys in our group. We’ve got some good pieces so if we continue to get better we’ll be competitive and give ourselves a chance.’’

Nevill knows he has to be a defensive threat as much as an offensive threat.

‘‘I put a little bit of weight on in the off-season. I know it’s a physical league, and I’m just trying to create a presence inside and make guys shoot over me, contest shots, protect the paint,’’ he said after the loss to Sydney.

‘‘We have a lot of guys who can shoot outside and stretch the floor, and me covering the inside helps us as a team.’’

Like just about every team at this stage of the season, Wollongong suffer mental lapses during games.

There were times in both games when they didn’t seem to know which offence they were running. Other times they were dead silent on defence.

‘‘We had sparks last night and tonight where we showed that we are a contender,’’ Nevill said.

‘‘We also have times when we space out, but we’re still gelling as a team. I’ve only been here a couple of weeks and we’ve definitely got room to improve, but I definitely saw sparks during this game and last night which is really pleasing.’’