BASKETBALL
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Wollongong coach Gordie McLeod believes there is light at the end of the tunnel for the crestfallen Hawks.
Still reeling from last week's shock sacking of teammate Dave Gruber, the Hawks slumped to their seventh straight loss on Sunday, going down 88-75 to Melbourne.
Last-placed Wollongong (1-7) were backing up from Friday night's 83-64 home loss to titleholders Perth.
Despite their grim predicament, the Hawks are looking hard for silver linings.
McLeod found one in his team's playing schedule, which is about to enter a far more favourable phase compared to their horror draw over the first four rounds.
After starting the season with eight games in 23 days, Wollongong have just 10 games over the next two months.
They play just one weekend double-header during that period. That's in stark contrast to the four consecutive doubles they have just completed.
"The biggest thing for us is not having the practice time, but we're starting to get there," McLeod said on Sunday night.
"[The early draw] is just the reality of the situation. That's no excuse. That's just what you have to do in this league. But what the next couple of weeks is going to allow us to do is get some quality practice time, and we really haven't had that of late.
"Hopefully it'll also allow us to get some guys healthy. That'll help accelerate our development as a team.
"The season is a marathon, it's not a sprint, and we've been competitive with nearly every team. We have to keep making progress with our offensive and defensive systems. We did that today, so we can build on that and try and build some momentum over the coming weeks."
The Hawks were tied at 23-23 with Perth on Friday, only to be over-powered over the next three periods.
They were in the hunt against Melbourne when they trailed by five at half-time and paid dearly for yet another third-quarter meltdown.
"We fought hard," McLeod said.
"As the game went on, our system and our offence looked better. We started to get players in positions to do the things they do. We started to get some stops and put some pressure on at both ends of the floor, and we made some inroads and disrupted a bit, but they had too big a lead."
McLeod wasn't as pleased with Friday's performance.
"The thing that's disappointing for me is the cohesiveness of the group and how we're playing with our offence," McLeod said after the thrashing from the Wildcats.
"We're not getting good ball movement and we're not getting good player movement. We're not able to target areas we want to attack, and that's something we have to work hard on."
