Replacing Gordie McLeod at Hawks no easy task

Regardless of who the Wollongong Hawks appoint as the club's new coach, his predecessor is a hard act to follow.

After six years as Hawks coach, born and bred Wollongong boy Gordie McLeod has decided against signing with the club for a seventh season.

Eric Cooks and Matt Flinn will return as assistant coaches for the 2015-16 NBL season, but it remains to be seen who they will be working under.

The Hawks have less than four months to find a head coach and build a playing roster from scratch.

Cooks was sad to see McLeod go: "He's a great person and a great coach. It's very disappointing.

"Obviously we all had individual decisions to make and I support the decision he made."

Cooks has been with the Hawks since 1997, serving as a player for three years before joining the coaching staff.

He has already had two-and-a-half seasons as head coach after taking over from Brendan Joyce in 2006-07.

Cooks is likely to apply for the unexpected coaching vacancy.

"Obviously if you're in this game you would love to be a head coach and I would consider it," he said.

"That's ultimately up to the club to make that decision, but it's a hard gig for anyone stepping in behind Gordie, who's been a great coach and great motivator and had a lot of support around the league. It's some big shoes to fill."

With only eight NBL teams and dozens of unknown coaches throughout Australia keen to get a shot at the big time, the Hawks will have no shortage of applicants for the job.

"I would imagine it would be quite a few," Cooks said.

"Obviously there's not many opportunities in the NBL to be a head coach, so any doors that open up you would think there'd be a few hands going up in the air."

Cooks and Flinn have been entrusted by Hawks management to get cracking with the club's player recruitment and retention drive.

"We won't do it alone," Cooks said. "We have a committee and we'll go through available players, and obviously look at focusing first of all on who we can get to return, keeping in mind it will be a different head coach."

Contacted by The Mercury on Wednesday, McLeod said he would wait a couple of days before commenting publicly on his resignation.