Ed Space
Brian Goorjian sounded every bit the Wollongong local when he said this last week.
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"I'm walking out of here tonight, going back to The Gong and I feel like I and the team have backed up our promise to the community when the Illawarra became the name," the Illawarra Hawks coach said at the end of the NBL Cup in Melbourne.
The modern home of the Illawarra Hawks is known as the Sandpit. The Sandpit is more correctly known as the WIN Entertainment Centre.
Often people get that confused with the Snakepit, which is the spiritual home and training venue of our National Basketball League club. Two different venues.
Well, after months away, the Illawarra Hawks will be soon be returning to the Sandpit and Hawks fans need to turn it from the Sandpit into the Thunderdome.
We need to get behind our Illawarra Hawks and turn the WEC into the seething, writhing cauldron that was made famous in the Mad Max movie franchise.
For the sake of this exercise, Hawks coach Brian Goorjian will be our Mad Max leading us into the battle against the forces of evil (read: Melbourne United, the Perth Wildcats etc, etc).
Goorjian and his troops return from their long stint away with an impressive 9-6 win-loss record and third spot on the NBL ladder.
That would be impressive enough and we'd be shouting it from the leaky rafters any other year, but this year all but one of those game has been on the road. Our Illawarra Hawks have 21 games in the season and a massive 13 of those will be at home.
When the Hawks return for their second home game of the year against the Brisbane Bullets at the Thunderdome (read: Sandpit) on Monday, March 29, that will be followed by a long run of home games.
If the Illawarra Hawks fans can turn themselves into the team's 11th man and make it uncomfortable for the visiting teams we will have a massive shot at the play-offs. It's incredible to think that even possible after the disaster of last year and a financial liquidation leading to the complete rebirth of the club.
Mad Max (read:Goorjian) has spoken. He has held up his end of the bargain and now it is up to the people of the Illawarra to hold up theirs.
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Julian O'Brien
Editor of the Illawarra Mercury and former editor of The Advocate (North-West Tasmania). Journalism is simply about telling good stories well and we do so now across a broader platform than ever before. Our role as a regional masthead is to not only share the stories our readers care about but to be a passionate torch bearers for community at every opportunity. We are stronger together.
Editor of the Illawarra Mercury and former editor of The Advocate (North-West Tasmania). Journalism is simply about telling good stories well and we do so now across a broader platform than ever before. Our role as a regional masthead is to not only share the stories our readers care about but to be a passionate torch bearers for community at every opportunity. We are stronger together.
