Sunday’s disappointing loss to Sydney was the Hawks’ third on the trot to start the season, leaving them win-less after two rounds and stuck at the bottom of the ladder.

They looked slick in their season-opener against Cairns before letting it slip at the death and produced one of the best halves of Beveridge’s tenure in the opening stanza against Perth on Friday.

There were positives to take out of both those losses, but it was hard to find any in the 16-point loss to Kings.

It also highlights why Beveridge was so furious at the Cairns loss, given the tough road double his side faced in round two. 

The Illawarra faithful will no doubt remember a similar start to last season where the Hawks went 1-4 to start their campaign before storming into the grand final.

The similarities aren’t lost on Beveridge, who was philosophical in the wake of the Sydney defeat.

“There’s no question we’re hurting as a group,” Beveridge said.

“Right now we’re in a little bit of a hole, but I know we have enough character in our team and enough talent in our team to weather this Storm that we’re in.

“People could be sitting back at home thinking ‘you’re full of shit Beveridge’, and all of that but I truly believe I have a special group of guys here.

“Last year it was the same situation, we got beaten by Perth in a tough game and came back here and got our arses handed to us.

“I think we lost by 23, it was our biggest loss of the season, so right now it’s almost deja vu – here we are again.

“We’re not going to implode. The characteristics of these players and who we are as a team… I couldn’t be more proud of these guys.

“There’s going to be a lot of critics out there writing us off. It happens every year, but it motivates me as a coach and I think it inspires our group.”

It makes their first home clash of the season against Brisbane – who will return from their exhibition clash with the Phoenix Suns – virtually must-win.

“We’ve got to move ahead real quick. We can make excuses if we want but I know the guys are going to continue to fight,” Beveridge said.

“We’ve shown some glimpses of how good we can be, we’re just not putting it together at this moment. It’s frustrating, it’s disappointing but we ain’t giving up.

“We’ve got these three games out of the way, we’re 0-3 so I think you’re going to see a pretty desperate team on Sunday against Brisbane.

“They’ve obviously got some things to deal with themselves with all their travel and things like that but right now this more about us from the mentality side of things.

“What our non-negotiable behaviours are and how we’re going to beat teams. Right now we’re all over the shop.

“We’ve got a week which is good. We had next to no preparation against Sydney and vice versa so the team that implemented their system the best won.”