Expect to see a lot of zone from the Hawks. Leaving scouted players open on the perimeter and clogging up the middle has been a big part of their recent success. Unless the likes of Ervin, Creek, Petrie can catch fire from outside I think the Hawks can get this one.
Will be interesting to see what Wright has planned to limit Clarke's scoring. That is obviously the key to a 6ers win.

The Hawks have come alive in the last half of the season. In the first 14 games, the average score was 77:83, this half they are now averaging 87:82.

Looking at the individual stats, there's been a slight improve from all the plays from the 2013 games to the 2014 game in all the key areas, but emphasis on all the players. Maybe the sum of everyone's little 1%'s makes a difference.

If 36ers want to have a chance finishing top spot it is a must win game, think gibbo and co will do enough to get the w

I'm interested to see how the 6ers play defence on this one. Joey has already said that will be the main focus so lets see if the team can lift their D.

Last time they played Joey said defending the 3 point line will be critical. He was right, 6ers were rubbish at that and got flogged.

My gut feel is that Wollongong desperation at home can get it done, should be close either way.

I just don't know why Teys is getting so much court time. I mean...Frye had the ability to score and could defend. Tey's cant score anywhere near as easily and can only defend shorter players.

What the heck!!

Carter is better than Tey's, Creek is better than Teys..so why is he even seeing the court!

In a perfect world, drunken jerk NowhereGong fans will die in a fire. A cheap one. Those guys were just assholes.

Hawks kept hitting hard hard baskets. Sixers lack one or two pure shooters. Or a Rotnei Clarke or Rhys Martin.

I was calling for Creek to be signed up for ten years only a couple of weeks ago. But that was a very bad game. Outplayed by Carter and Teys by some distance.

At least the 48% 3pt shooting by the Hawks his time was not all open shots.

(Bill Woods kept calling Rhys Carter Rhys Martin all night. Close, but wrong)

Thankyou Wollongong :)

Great quality game and exceptional play from Martin and Clarke. Joey was on the money: they were hitting TOUGH shots!

Gotta love the plethora of baseless "Teys is shit" comments on Hoops.

Also, I heard Star Wars music in the background of the post-game analysis on Ten. Was that actually playing at The Sandpit?

Noticed on the replay Gary Ervin jawing at Rotnei Clarke as the teams shook hands after the game. He's been taking some angry pills.

Probably a bit deflated considering he's play 1 good quarter against the Hawks in Wollongong in his 4 games in opposition colours.

That and Rotnei is hands down a better player.

It's just a make or miss game sometimes.

Teys really played like he belongs in the starting lineup, he plays tight D.

To say Clarke is better than Ervin is a pretty big call to make.

A very entertaining game.

Clarke continues to give MVP discussions a shake, and he wasn't even the best player on his team tonight.

I thought Teys played a good game tonight and deserved his starting spot.

He had less minutes than Creek and Cadee yet scored more and at a better clip.

Creek isn't getting as much minutes as I would have expected with Frye's departure. Maybe Joey is saving Creek for the big push in the playoffs.

Overall...can't help but feel the Sixers let this one slip away, especially when they didn't have Tiggs.

Gong deserved the win tonight. Outplayed us in all departments. We stayed within range but were just short of good enough all through.

Any team that tries to stay with Woolongong by trading baskets will lose.

Joey seems to be trying to bring Teys up to a finals standard player and I think he has made the wrong choice in not putting that work into Mitch Creek. Creek has the potential which just seems to me to be suppressed by his limited court time. He is young and keeps being brought in intermittently and cold!!! He needs to be backed and used as an important offensive player in the set plays, with continuity in his court time. He is usually subbed out just when he is getting warmed up and on the verge of losing that hesitancy. He should be encouraged to up his game aggressively and keep going. He would be better for starting with the best quality line up. If he fouls out later it wouldnt matter as we are not using him well any way. Either Creeks a dud (not) or Joeys no better than Clarke as far as developing Creek is concerned. No development coaching at all. Either back him or send him off to someone else or another sport. I personally think he is an exiting talent and we will lose him due to the lack of faith shown him through his court time and position in our side.

On a more positive note we did have a period of better shot selection in the last quarter and hit some great shots from range.

This was spoiled somewhat by ErvIn who after several brilliant and sensible shots had to make that ego play at crunch time. Turn over and goodnight. I looked at that and said thats probably the game. I think that was with about 3 mins to go but will have to watch again to check.

Joey has to keep ErvIn's ego in check. He does great things and then, bang, ego play, turnover.
If missed shots under the ring went on his turnover stats he would look very ordinary indeed.
He needs a strong coach to keep him thinking clearly. 6/16, not good enough and he denies better shooters their opportunities. He's not enough of a team player, negating his great talent.

After an outstanding start to the season we now need to adjust to the improved standard of play in those teams now pushing us to have a genuine chance of bringing home a flag.

For those who say Teys is now earning his place in the starting line up I would say Teys is playing well. He is not doing anything wrong, but he is not going to give us any thing more than being a good team link player. Not up to the standard we need to contest finals as an elite all rounder. With mediocrity we will lose. I would rather see the effort put into an x factor like Creek while we still have the chance. A very narrow window of chance at this stage of the season.

Having said all that I have been enjoying this amazing season with Joey and really hope we can keep this fantastic, never give up aggressive style of play right to the last game.

Ervin is a bitch! Can't hack it, bitches all game!! Every one saying ennis is imature? Ervin will win u and lose u games.

Ease up Loco going on about hawks fans dying in a fire, very stupid and immature thankfully not all 36er fans are like you

Hawks needed it more. Sixers aren't going to catch Perth, just need to hold second. Crocs up next.

Sixers need a big ass banner with a pic of the team with BJ in the middle staring out on the reverse side that they can roll out behind the bench at the gong made with heavy vinyl to block out the 'mouth' and a built in boom box to blast out Hecklers ears. What a T..... , why is anyone mates with that..... Every club has some heckling, but that's ridiculous and embarrassing for the Gong. Can't be good for families nearby... I'm not going to say the obvious though.....

Still fair play to the Gong fans, loaded with amazing shooters who deserved the win last night....

Teys, Daly, Teys, Daly........ I know my pick, then no need for Carter and Frye could have stayed....

Great win by the Hawks(Illawarra) Clarke hit some massive shots in the end after being quiet most of the night and suffering from the flu kudos! Great to see Martyn back to his best. Hawks missed him when out injured last year and has taken some time to rediscover that kind of form. Will tip them to sneak into the four if sydney lose to perth this weekend.

Isnt the heckler related to Rhys Martin or is it Rhys Carter

Everyone jump on the Hawks bandwagon!

Not sure which of the hecklers you guys are whingeing about. What I can tell you is that almost every one of those that I see when I watch the games have been going to Hawks games since they were young kids and have supported the team through many poor and occasional good years. They also love the game and have played in many of the local domestic comps for a similar period. They play at a decent local level and as such they understand the game and while they do what they can to get in the heads of the opposition they also have an appreciation of most NBL players. Sure they get hyped but add colour to the game night atmosphere.

Of course for a lot of the locals in Adelaide I understand it must be difficult to be passionate at the game as it takes a lot of time and energy shooting down your own players, coaches or just dumping your team all together when they are performing poorly . On top of that they have to find time to complain about their local clubs poaching players or which coaches are shit or which players missed out on rep sides.

Statsheet Stuffer. "To say Clarke is better than Ervin is a pretty big call to make".

Depends on the context. Better BB IQ. Clarke by a mile. Better shooter again a no brainer. Better handles, faster, Ervin but not by as much. Better defender probably Ervin but he also gambles a lot more and gets caught out as a result. Better team mate, locker room presence. Do I even need to answer that.

Hypothetical I know but I would suggest that the 6ers team would be far better if Ervin was replaced by Clarke.

Hawks are peaking at the right time of the season. Could be a very interesting series if it went Perth-Hawks

That was a pretty good game by Ervin too. Sixers did as best they could to keep Clarke out of it.

Didn't see Rhys' wife behind the bench this game. Seemed to be a group of four guys. But then I didn't see them doing anything OTT?

On Teys/Frye, if the club wanted to maximise their run at the championship, they should've cut Frye sooner and brought in an import replacement. Not much money to spend, but an ABL scorer who could learn the system quickly would suffice.

That said, Carter had a few last night which didn't hurt.

Agree Jack hawks are playing well it could come down to season finale at Perth that determines if they make playoffs

It's a hard one isn't it.

That's the thing, success is determined so much by situation. Out of hundreds of examples I could use, I'll use the one of Brendan Teys. Was a development player for Townsville last season and was not good enough to get court time. Comes to Adelaide and starts and makes it look ss though he belongs.

Clarke definitely makes better sense than Ervin in Adelaide simply because of the shooting the Sixers need.

Stick Ervin at SG alongside a pure point and I'd say he'd do better than Clarke.

This whole arguement is obviously subjective, we will all have different opinions.

Btw Ervin's three ball has improved dramatically since the Wollongong days. Would've been good to see the damage he'd do with the ability to stretch the floor back then. I was talking to him late 2012 and he said that he always could shoot, but he had a recurring problem with his shooting hand, thumb from memory.

Rotnei is shooting 38% on the 3, but he's pretty streaky with it too. Don't think I'm taking anything away from Clarke, he's one of the more outstanding import PGs of the past decade.

Someone like Massingale, Isaac?

I do agree though; more thought should've gone into it.

I just don't see what Carter really gives this team that Cadee/Gibson already do.

36ers , IMO, got rid of a scorer (which they needed) to get a guy who doesn't really do anything well. Like what does he add to the team?

People compliment his defence...yet Clarke and Martin went off last night.

And people have no place criticising Teys after what he did last night. He did everything asked of him I feel. Was very happy with what he did.

If you want to criticise anyone, criticise Creek. When he plays well people say he deserves more mins (fair game)..but when he does absolutely nothing like last night people blame Wright for not giving him consistent mins (not fair game).

This talk of Essendon is disgusting -- not so much the content of it -- but the timing. Dude should be focussed on winning the championship.

Not Massingale. Guess the risk was with the timing they took, they had limited options. Carter was a known quantity, in the country and match-fit. Had they moved earlier (and perhaps been researching earlier) there would've been more options. Maybe they looked and couldn't find anyone. Three and D would've been the ideal type.

Wouldn't rush to call Frye a scorer. At his best, he was useful, but he was rarely at his best. A three point shooting SF/SG would've been handy, like a Dorsey if he can still play at all.

Sixers put up 25 3PA last night which I imagine is exactly what Wollongong wanted them to do. Noticed they were happy to double team Schenscher at the expense of guys like Cadee and so on being open outside. Sixers didn't shoot as poorly as other nights, but it made the game on Hawk terms and paid off.

The guys behind the visitors bench aren't related to anyone that plays or works for the Hawks. They've been going to games for years!

Obviously I don't hear everything that comes out of their mouths but the things I've heard is just normal trash talking that you'd hear on any basketball court. Never heard anything out of line said.

Some of the Dragons players go to games and you should hear some of the things THEY say to the other teams haha my lord!

Thing is, who else besides Creek shows a great deal of passion for the club?

I think a lot of the 36ers are passionate.

Creek just tends to show it more..not every one is the type to fist pump and get all pumped after a big play.

Johnson is the only one you can single out as not displaying prototypical passion. (Could just be his demeanour but doubt it).

But Petrie, Gibbo especially, Carter, Teys, Ervin and even BJ seem like passionate dudes. By passionate they all play hard to win.

Isaac, interested to know how you define passion in your book?

My take is that a passionate player wouldnt talk about his AFL future when the current club he plays for is vying for a potential championship

Passion is tweeting 'bitches' when the sixers has a win.

seems to me, teys got the go-ahead over creek cos teys correct me if im wrong was a player at the gold coast. also seems that its majorly important to have as many of the ex blaze team members on court at any time rather than have the guys who wanna be there.

im sorry, but so unsure how teys is part of the starting line-up. im sure there's a good reason behind it given teys never saw any game time earlier in the year, now suddenly gets a fair slice of the pav.

however, what the coach does is far better than what the coach has done in the previous 3 seasons.

MACDUB, talking about a natural inclination to push the brand off-court, above and beyond the defaults expected. A lot act like guns for hire from what I see. Only having one local in the team probably hurts that.

We started pretty good, unforunately the bench not as good. Carfino is confused about a lotta things, but Carter and martin in the same game fried his brain. Perhaps we shouldda fouled Clarke there with 1 minute to go. Nevertheless, illawarra too good overall

The promo shot was from 1992, the commentary from then too.

"Illawarra, Illawarra, Illawarra"

While we even guarded pretty good! and gotta lotta rebounds!! at the start, the bench not as good at it and gave up the lead.