Kay produced arguably his best performance in Illawarra colours in Friday’s epic comeback win over Brisbane after star Hawks centre AJ Ogilvy fouled out in the third quarter.

Beveridge said the performance illustrated why he was so keen to jump on the phone to the former Townsville forward when the Crocs folded in the off-season.

“The way Nick’s been playing epitomises this club, the heart of this guy and how hard he plays no matter what,” Beveridge said.

“He doesn’t get caught with referees, he doesn’t get caught up with anything he just plays guts out, offensively, defensively, rebounding, running the floor, helping his teammates he’s just been outstanding.”

For his part, Kay was keen to deflect attention labeling the win a “huge team effort.”

“The momentum came fro our defence,” Kay said.

“We started getting up in that third quarter and I don’t think the gap came down as much as we’d have liked but it was that effort early in that third quarter that really started that momentum and got guys working a bit harder on defence.

“By the end of the game it wore them down more than it wore us down so I was really proud of the guys. We played our butts off and thankfully got the win.

“Rotnei hit some big shots, we had Norto diving on loose balls and it was those little plays that were the reason we got the win.”