IT'S yet another curveball, but Hawks coach Brian Goorjian says a late change of opponent is clearly advantageous as his team emerges from a three-week hiatus.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Hawks were set to meet a Melbourne United outfit running hot on the back of four straight wins, three coming with the entire Illawarra camp trapped in a two-week isolation.
It would have been a tall order, even on their home floor, but they'll now face an Adelaide outfit that's also experienced multiple postponements due to positive COVID cases.
The fixture change came on a day the NBL was forced to postpone four round six games after positive tests emerged in the JackJumpers and Tapains camps.
With the 36ers recent experience closely mirroring that of his own team, Goorjian feels the Hawks return will now come on a more even playing field.
"A big concern was how you come out of a 10-day [in-season] layoff. I've never done that before," Goorjian said.
"I've been totally locked in with our physio and our fitness coach working very slowly [to come back] and the thing you worry about is coming up against a team that's won four in a row with tremendous momentum.
"You're watching them play on TV and then coming into it dead cold. Now we're in a situation where, we're concerned, but it's more equal.
"Adelaide's been in a similar situation so it's a better scenario for us."
It will see the United scout temporarily tossed out, but Goorjian believes all teams in the league will have an inward focus given the frequent late changes to the schedule and fixtures.
"It's understanding how COVID's going to operate, what you're dealing with and how to best work around it," Goorjian said.
"Those specific things for other teams, you just kind of stay away from. We were playing Melbourne but we've been focusing on our own weaknesses defensively, not specifically running through Melbourne's plays, knowing this could take place.
"We have some basic things we're not doing well defensively no matter who we're playing against.
"Offensively we need flow, we need to play games, so that's a work in progress. You can't improve in that area, totally, without playing.
"At the defensive end, we've gone way down from where we were last year so we've really given that a lot of attention the last three-four days."
Goorjian admits he was not prepared for virtually his entire roster to be struck down at the same time, but he feels there's a silver lining to it now it's in the rear-view mirror.
"Coming out of our situation, all of us getting COVID at the same time, in some way you feel happy that you've had it and you're done with it," Goorjian said.
"Where we're at right now is 'don't feel like you're Hercules because you've had it'. You've still got to be careful, but we're moving forward. I think the league in general is going through that.
"[Omicron's] here and it's highly contagious so I think we're going to go through a process now where teams are going to get it and come out the other end six or seven days down the road.
"We were always prepared for change and we're just happy that there's a team that's healthy and we're going to get a game because we've been dying to play."
The Illawarra Mercury news app is now officially live on both iOS and Android devices. It is available for download in the Apple Store and Google Play.