It's two words in fact.

"Thank you".

Read more: Fans witness an epic Illawarra comeback

We should say a big thank you to the ownership group of our Illawarra Hawks for working so diligently and advocating so loudly in the halls of power in the NBL for the return of the Illawarra name.

The ownership group of Michael Proctor, Jared Novelly, Bryan Colangelo and Dorry Kordahi didn't make the decision to remove the name.

It was among the terms set on the new license by the NBL after the collapse of the previous ownership.

The man behind the local bid for the licence, Illawarra businessman Tory Lavelle, has confirmed he would have been subjected to the same conditions should he have been the successful bidder.

The new ownership group promised to embed themselves in this community and actively listen to the feedback and concerns of this community.

They've certainly done that and club president Dorry Kordahi has been a prominent figure in Wollongong since taking leadership of the franchise.

That has to be respected and congratulated.

There is little more you can ask of an ownership group than that and it certainly has been something which had been missing from the previous Hawks ownership.

The actual genuine community engagement from the ownership had been tokenistic at best.

Previous owner Simon Stratford was rarely seen in pre-game functions talking to the key people, whereas Dorry Kordahi has put himself at the forefront of those conversations.

Read more: Illawarra return let's the Hawks truly take flight

And if you know the way business works in a smaller community of Wollongong, compared to Sydney, you'd understand that is vitally important.

So now we must fall back behind the Illawarra Hawks, get to games and buy your memberships.

This is our challenge now.

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