YOU’D be hard-pressed to find a sporting team that enjoys each other’s company more than the current Hawks playing group who enjoyed a well earned beer and a laugh on Mad Monday yesterday.
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It’s now a group with unfinished business following their finals elimination at the hands of Perth on Friday and the overwhelming sentiment from within the Hawks camp is that the current group wants to remain together to go one better next season.
As the empty schooner glasses piled up on Monday that sentiment would only have become more pronounced.
That all hinges on coach Rob Beveridge who wasn’t there on Monday after remaining at home with his family in Perth following Friday’s loss to the Wildcats.
He has some thinking to do and the hazy warm emotion of Mad Monday is not a good environment to make the big decisions he’s currently faced with.
Beveridge should’ve been named the NBL’s coach of the year and under normal circumstances his return for next season would be a no-brainer. However, few people outside the Hawks very inner circle realise how difficult it’s been for Beveridge to spend so much time away from wife Suellen and children Annie, Jaydon and Noah this season.
A coach of his calibre won’t be short of options in his home state or in Wollongong but, make no mistake, family stability will be Beveridge’s number one priority, overriding everything else.
However, it’s family stability that may be the key factor in keeping the bulk of the current roster together.
Kevin Lisch, Kirk Penney, Rhys Martin, Cody Ellis and Tyson Demos all have young families while Larry Davidson’s partner is expecting their first child in April.
It’s a shared experience that plays a huge role in closeness among a playing group with different priorities that earlier stages of their careers.
Lisch, whose wife Rachel is from Heathcote, said he would love to remain in Wollongong but admitted a lot will hinge on Beveridge’s decision.
"If Bevo can come back then I think a lot of pieces will fall into place,” Lisch said.
“I absolutely love it here, my family loves it here and I’ve never had so much fun playing basketball.
“Regardless of all the personal things I’ve got going for me here in Wollongong the fact that it was so much fun to play definitely adds to the intrigue of wanting to stay here.”