The Hawks suffered an 87-78 loss to Canberra Gunners Academy last weekend, the defeat seeing the team slip to third and forcing Illawarra to take on St George in an elimination final.

A win would have seen the Hawks face Tamworth in a qualifying final, the loser having a second chance in a week's time.

While disappointed with his team's performance last weekend, Forrester is looking forward to seeing his team bounce back at the Snakepit on Saturday night.

"The boys are pretty excited to play finals," Forrester said. "The last game gave us the determination to not want to lose again. That one hurt a bit.

"The fact we didn't protect home court was most disappointing. There was barely any talk after the game, normally we're pretty jovial, but this was pretty somber.

"Now if we do lose we're out, it's win or go home from now on. But I'm confident if we do get one win under our belt, we'll be able to get two or three compounded on top of that."

With the Waratah League running two separate pools, the Hawks are yet to face St George this season. Forrester is aware, however, of the threats the Saints pose, with the team led by veteran Erik Dorbek.

The key for the Hawks will be shutting Dorbek down and forcing St George's less experienced players to handle the ball as much as possible.

"They have three players who have been their consistent performers for the last six years. One, Erik Dorbek, has been in the ABA for the last six years and is a very consistent, very strong player.

"Our game plan is to play team defence, limit their possessions, limit their touches and just pressure the other players into making bad plays."

While Forrester has prepared a carefully laid plan for the defensive end of the game, it's on offence where he's hoping to see the most improvement from his team.

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After last week's disappointing result, he knows it's crucial his side returns to the pass-first offence that saw the Hawks have so much success earlier in the season.

If they are able to do so, he's confident an Illawarra victory will follow.

"We're focusing on offensive improvements. We need to play as a team again, we haven't done that for the last few weeks.

"We have gone one pass, one shot offence, that isn't us. We're looking for more ball movement, get the ball through more people's hands.

"Once we move the ball around, we get wide open shots and get on a roll and we're pretty hard to stop. If we stick to our game plan, we should win."

The match, which tips off at 6pm on Saturday night, will be preceded by the Illawarra youth league team, who will play a must-win game against Hills in their final match of the regular season.

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