Quest to name 12 greatest Hawks continues

In a lot of ways, the moment known simply as ‘Damon’s free-throws’ epitomised the Hawks’ run to what remains the club’s only NBL championship.

Damon Lowery –  the NBL journeyman who didn’t debut in the NBL until after his 34^th birthday – tossing up three free-throws that took the long, hard, scrappy route to an unlikely victory. 

As The Mercury continues it’s quest to name the 12 greatest Hawks of all-time, it’s certainly enough to see Lowery included on the 10-man shortlist for the decade from 1999-2008.

The 2000-01 squad featured three players – Glen Saville, Mat Campbell and Melvin Thomas – whose retired singlets hang from the WEC rafters and are automatic inclusions in the final 12. 

Saville and Campbell both feature on the 1999-08 list which is logically dominated by members of the club’s only championship-winning team.

Charles Thomas, Matt Garrison and Axel Dench all feature on the list that, in the height of irony, also includes Darnell Mee, the man who sent Lowery to the line that fateful night.

It’s a night Brendan Joyce remembers well but, for the Hawks only grand final-winning coach, it was one of several pivotal moments, most of which came well away from The Sandpit.

“One of the things that really wanted to change with the club was the ability to win away from home,” Joyce recalls.

“Before I got there the team had never won in Perth or Adelaide.  They’re not easy places to win. The crowd has a lot of influence, any 50-50 call won’t go your way so you have to overcome a fair bit of adversity to win. 

“That’s something I was trying to build, if you can win away, particularly in those venues, Perth in particular, you can win the championship.

“They called it a hoodoo but it really came down to maturity and mental toughness to be able to win in those gyms. That team had tremendous mental toughness and had the ability to play on the away courts.”

That philosophy saw the Hawks build a 12-2 record on the road that season and would prove crucial come the play-offs, which saw them play in Perth and Adelaide in back to back road clashes.

“Game three [against Adelaide] is what most people remember but all the series were incredible, they all went to three games,” Joyce said.

“In the first series against Perth, we were down 10 at halftime, in game three, in their gym. You could hear a pin drop in the change room. 

“I went around one-by-one and said ‘we’re a chance of winning the championship if we can win this’. I challenged them and every one of them stood up and said ‘I’m in’. 

“We went out and, as we did all year, we hit the front with four minutes to go. That was an incredible series to win in Perth and then we had to go straight to Adelaide and we beat them by a point on their court.

“We came back to Wollongong and they won game two but we came back in game three and won when Damon hit the free-throws.”

Witnessing the incredible scenes that followed, one could be forgiven for the thinking the Hawks had won the championship right there.

The same one could also forget that there was was still a grand final series to play, but Joyce said he felt no urge to put a lid on the celebrations. 

“It was about embracing the moment,” Joyce said.

“Rather than bringing them together and making them feel tight, I said let’s enjoy it and after every game I made sure we really enjoyed it.

“We went into the change rooms and celebrated it and then I said ‘lets go back out and soak it up’, because no one had left. 

“We brought all the families down, I had my wife I picked up over the rail and it was just a celebration. I said boys ‘we’re going to a grand final, lets enjoy this’.” 

That series against Townsville, proved a thriller of it’s own, with Thomas coming up big down the stretch in the third and deciding match.

“We’d lost to them by 18 in game two and the stadium was going crazy, you couldn’t hear yourself,” Joyce said. 

“We were eight down with six minutes to go so I subbed Melvin out and went small and we got within four and with four minutes to go.

“I turned around and said ‘you ready to go Mel’ he said ‘yep’ and in that last four minutes he was incredible.

“He took some key rebounds, we hit the front with three minutes to go and hung on to win.”

That late cameo typified the way the Hawks played in that season that saw across the board contributions from one of the more unlikely looking championship rosters in NBL history.

“We were probably the fifth most talented team but we had great team chemistry which is a big factor,” Joyce said.

“The championship doesn’t happen in one year, it’s about developing as a team and having the right mix of people not just talent-wise.

“The boys really got on well together and understood, and accepted, their roles. In some of those game we had over 50 points scored from our bench.  

“We’re still the only regional town that’s won a championship in the history of the NBL. That tells you how special that group was.”

Hawks class of 1999-08:

Mat Campbell (automatic inclusion)

Glen Saville (automatic inclusion)

Damon Lowery

Charles Thomas

Darnell Mee

Matt Garrison

CJ Bruton

Adam Ballinger

Axel Dench

Cortez Groves