Hawks skipper Oscar Forman says his side is hunting for more than just a pass mark after booking a play-offs spot with a win over Townsville on Saturday.
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Illawarra will be looking to become just the second team to reach a grand final series just a year after finishing with the wooden spoon but will have to go through either Melbourne or hoodoo side Perth to get there.
Forman was unfussed about where his side will need to travel in week one.
‘‘It doesn’t really enter your mind,’’ Forman
‘‘We just know we’re not happy just to make play-offs we want to get to the next round.
‘‘We’ve achieved our first goal of making play-offs and our next goal is making the grand final series.
Everyone has to dig deep and do whatever we can for that.
“By no means are we ready to settle just saying we’re in play-offs and that’s good enough for this year.
‘‘With the group we’ve got to be hungry and we need to feed that hunger by making the grand final series and go for our further goal.”
The Hawks were pushed into overtime by a lowly ranked Townsville outfit on Saturday and Forman described the clash as a wake-up call.
‘‘We did a poor job of being a little bit too relaxed with Kirk coming back in and just thinking someone else will get it done,’’ Forman said.
“In finals it’s just going to be a another level of pressure and intensity.
‘‘It’s a whole different beast and we have to make sure we’re up for that challenge and we’re not just thinking it’s going to happen for us.’’