HOOPLA: Hawks road run character revealing

'Split your road games' is an oft-repeated mantra in the NBL. Aside from bold calls like Melbourne United star Jock Landale's public desire to go undefeated, coaches and players trot it out without variation.

Playing eight straight games in Melbourne, the Hawks met that standard in seeing off United on Saturday night for a 4-4 ledger. You only had to see the emotion Goorjian showed when the final buzzer sounded to see how big it was.

The only scenes that came close followed his side's second win over Cairns to start the season 4-0. Hindsight shows it wasn't about getting carried away with the wins, it was understanding of how tough things were about to get.

As much he clearly enjoyed his side's performances early on, Goorjian hammered the fact that were going to get tough. Really tough.

He's often pointed to his experience as Boomers coach in discussing the long stretch on the road. It's given him a good sense for when a team has reached the end of its tether and "a day off won't fix it."

As he said the morning of the Hawks game against Sydney, when you hit that point "the road's a different beast." Like the Hawks, the Kings have been almost solely on the road since Christmas and hit their low against the Hawks. Illawarra hit theirs four days earlier against Perth.

In fact, across the league it's been interesting to see the 'boot camp' effect at work. The Hawks were young and hungry and, for a new team coming together, the time on the road was a blessing in disguise.

It's something Perth and Brisbane, having started their respective campaigns at home, seemed to benefit from through the Cup. For the Hawks it was starting to wear thin.

As it stands now, the Hawks are 9-5 on the road (technically 6-4 on the ladder given their three 'home' games in the Cup). Outstanding really.

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They have arguably the two toughest road trips on offer in the league against Melbourne and Perth to come before finally playing just their second game in Wollongong.

They'll like their chances, but even if they drop to 6-6 they're ahead of the curve at the mid-point of the season. You'd take that in less than a heartbeat, particularly with 13 of a theoretical 19 game to come at home.

Goorjian was right to suggest after the win on Saturday, that that return should be a triumphant one.

"I know [my players] have got that competitive spirit that was questioned in the Perth game," Goorjian said.

"It's a new club, we're trying to build a new culture, there's been a lot of questions thrown since the start of the season and where we've come in on this Cup.

"Let's weigh this thing up after 15 games. I'm walking out of here tonight, going back to the Gong, and I feel like this team has backed up their promise to the community when Illawarra became the name [again].

"I told the guys, head up, chest out when you come back into the community and feel really good about yourself."