A free agent since April, Martin officially rejoined Wollongong on Thursday and is almost certain to play against the Perth Wildcats on Friday night at WIN Entertainment Centre.

The Hawks are last with a 1-5 record and still coming to terms with Wednesday’s shock axing of hard-nosed forward Dave Gruber.

Martin has been tracking the Hawks’ progress and believes they aren’t playing as badly as their record suggests.

But the 28-year-old playmaker said keeping the faith in coach Gordie McLeod’s varied offensive systems was paramount.

‘‘I don’t think it’s a quick fix,’’ Martin said.

‘‘It’s a tough system to learn with Gordie, a process that takes time. You have to get all the ins and outs, all the wrinkles. 

‘‘I’ve been watching the game and how the guys have been going. The team looks good. They’re coming up short only by two points, so they’re not far off the pace.

‘‘If everybody is committed to winning and committed to getting better as a group, we can fix those minor faults.’’

Martin played with the Hawks from 2008-14 before deciding to pursue a career in Europe.

He didn’t score the deal he was seeking and continued to live in Wollongong with his wife and infant daughter.

The 185cm point guard has effectively returned to the club as Gruber’s replacement, although they play entirely different positions.

Martin was a Hawks teammate of Gruber’s for five years and knows the club made one of the most controversial calls in its 35-year history to release Gruber.

‘‘It was a big day,’’ he said.

‘‘Dave’s a great guy. Everybody loves Dave and hates to see these kinds of things happen in sport. But that’s what happens when you have a private ownership. They make decisions and you just have to deal with it and move on.

‘‘It’s tough times to be in, but it’s part of sport and all we can do is move forward.’’

Martin will play with the Hawks for the rest of the season.

The club still has 11 contracted players on the roster, meaning McLeod will have to continue to rest a player for each game.

Martin’s returns comes as Hawks general manager Kim Welch insisted the club would stay tight.

Gruber was cut by the Hawks on Wednesday to make room for re-signed guard Rhys Martin.

The Hawks’ facebook page was inundated with comments, most of which criticised the decision to axe fan favourite Gruber.

Welch said he wasn’t surprised by the reaction and expects the NBL’s last foundation club to pull through the intense backlash.

‘‘We’ll stay united,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s an emotional decision and there’s going to be emotional reactions to start with. There was a lot of consultation with the coaching group in regards to what’s the best fit for our on-court system right now, and we felt we needed to make a change to stay competitive with the best teams in the league. That’s where we want to be on-court so we had to make this very, very tough decision.’’