Goorj has said on plenty of occasions that this season is a marathon, not a sprint, and you'd be deluded to think you'll play perfectly every time you're on the floor. Especially at this time of the year, you look more at the performances than the wins and losses.

Even after some of our wins this year I've said there were some things we didn't do well. We did enough to win on those occasions, and it's great to have those W's in the bank, but we were off the pace in too many areas on Sunday and got outplayed.

I thought we started the game OK, but definitely not with the energy we'd started out previous four wins. It was frustrating watching it back to see the Phoenix really play the way we'd been playing, we got out-hustled and out-rebounded.

Goorj has made no secret of the formula we look to play with, it's about effort areas, defence, rebounding and not giving up cheap points from the foul-line. We didn't meet our standards in any of those areas on Sunday.

In that regard, it's good we're not scratching our heads looking for solutions, we know what we need to do and what works for us to win games. We've shown that already, it's just about getting back to those principles.

After a performance like that, you're always glad to have the opportunity of a quick turnaround to get out there and atone. We're not the type of group to dwell on a loss and it's not hard to turn your attention to the next game when you're coming up against a team like Melbourne United.

A lot's been said and written about them and they're arguably the most talent-stacked team we've seen in the NBL, certainly in my time, but they're beatable. If there's one thing my time in this league has taught me it's that any team can be beaten on any given night. We got a strong reminder of that on Sunday.

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We've got be locked in from tip-off and stay that way for the whole game because they can really score in runs and can take the game away from you pretty quickly. We just need to make sure we're in the game down the stretch. If you do that you give yourself a shot at winning any game.

Flying in from Melbourne on game-day will be an added challenge, it's something I've never experienced, but this team's shown time and again that it can roll with the punches that are going to keep coming in a pandemic-affected season. United will be doing the same thing so there's no excuses.

It's a small price to pay for the opportunity to play at home in front of our fans for the first time this season. It will still be a first for most of our team given we're a new group, but it's definitely home for me and I've had so many great nights in that building.

We were prepared to be on the road until after the NBL Cup so it's a big bonus for us to get this game in. It's even more pleasing that we'll do it as the 'Illawarra Hawks'. This is a club and a community that's meant so much to me and one I've always felt privileged to represent.

We get the chance to do that on Wednesday night and hopefully the 'Illawarra' chant is loud and proud and we can give the fans plenty to cheer about.