North Queensland road trip is make or break for Hawks

The Hawks square off with the Taipans in Cairns on Saturday night and have to back up the following night against the Crocodiles in Townsville.

With just one win from 10 games, they can kiss the finals goodbye if they return from the trip empty-handed.

Wollongong’s only victory was against Townsville at home in round one, while they lost to Cairns by two at home a week later.

Forman believes the Hawks should take heart from the club’s historically good record in Cairns. He is also confident the Crocodiles are there for the taking.

‘‘I’m excited about this weekend, and as a team we all should be,’’ the 205cm forward said.

‘‘We’re going to two places we’ve played well at before and against two teams we’ve played quite well against. We can look at our previous scouting against both teams, what worked and what didn’t work, and we can take things from that into these two games.

‘‘You don’t want a heap of games piled on like the schedule we’ve already had, but now that we feel like we’re ready to climb out of this hole as a team, we need these games to be able to start the process.’’

Wollongong’s losing streak stretched to nine games with last Friday’s 16-point loss to New Zealand in Auckland.

Forman knows time is running out to save the season but remains optimistic.

‘‘The frustration levels are there of course, but it makes you more motivated,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s one of those things where you never question your teammates’ desire to win, it’s just our mental process and application towards the game that we need to clean up.

‘‘The embarrassing loss to Sydney the previous week was rock-bottom, but there were a lot of great signs from the New Zealand game and a different approach. Offensively we still weren’t clicking, but defensively we were very tough for a lot of the game and reasonably good for the rest of it.

‘‘We have to stay positive with it. There are times when scores aren’t coming, there’s a bit of pressure and you almost start second-guessing yourself, but we know we can hit shots. We have to be extra aggressive on the road because you don’t have that home crowd behind you.’’