The Illawarra Hawks have taken aim at the NBL, delivering a scathing assessment of the club’s travel conditions for their trip to Perth in the opening round of the season.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Hawks coach Rob Beveridge and import Brian Conklin both expressed their frustration over a lack of exit row seats provided to the club in the wake of their defeat to the Wildcats.
Illawarra were humbled by 40 points in Perth Arena, less than 48 hours after a dramatic quadruple overtime loss to Melbourne United.
On Monday, they were then forced to endure a similar scenario on their four hour return trip home from the West Australian capital.
Veteran forward David Andersen posted a short video of Twitter on the flight, which showed the 2.13m veteran crammed into his seat with his knees jammed against the chair in front.
The video had the hastag #morelegroomplz and tagged both the NBL and Qantas.
The NBL confirmed to the Illawarra Mercury that they were ‘addressing the matter with the club.’
Conklin referred to the conditions as ‘tragic’ on Sunday.
“You’ve got Dave [Anderson] who is seven foot. AJ [Ogilvy] who is seven foot. We are a professional club and we are riding in no exit rows,” he said.
“I don’t know what that is about but you wouldn’t know because you are not our heights. I have got pretty broad shoulders too so I am fighting with someone for a little piece of the arm rest.
“It’s ridiculous.”
Beveridge said the club contacted the NBL when they landed in Perth for the second match of their double-header in the first round.
“It’s absolutely not [acceptable],” Beveridge said.
“We brought it up with the league the minute we got here and it is something we have addressed. Right now we have had a response from the league.
“They are going to do a better effort, it is as simple as that.”
Beveridge said he would give his troops some much-needed time to recover after a difficult double header to start the campaign.
They next play Cairns Taipans away on Sunday evening.
“Tuesday is going to be a mental day for these guys. They need to mentally and physically have the day off,” Beveridge said.
“Then we will start to build it up Wednesday.
“We will go Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and travel Saturday up to Cairns so it’s another big trip up there as well.
“We have got a week between games, but the first couple of days will be important for us to mentally and physically recover.”