Roster 'Disruption' Behind Hawks' Struggles: Froling

When an import is replaced – be it through injury, personal reasons or the team deciding to move in a different direction – the transition into bringing a new star player into the side is almost never a smooth one.

The Illawarra Hawks have, unfortunately, been forced to go through that transition this season after Justin Robinson was ruled out for the year through injury.

After all the pre-season excitement surrounding a big three of Robinson, Tyler Harvey and Sam Froling, Robinson was - through no fault of his own - gone as quickly as he arrived.

Peyton Siva was the man elected to come in and take over those floor general duties initially reserved for Robsinson, and while he’s performing admirably the Hawks have continued their losing slide, having dropped their last six games to move to 1-8 on the season.

Fresh off of an 18-point, 11 rebound performance for the Boomers against Kazakhstan, Illawarra co-captain Sam Froling says the team is happy with how Siva is finding his feet within their system.

“We’re still working it out,” Froling told SEN. “We’ve got a good group of guys and it hurt us losing Justin Robinson in that first game – he was such a key piece for us.

“We’ve had Peyton in for three games, he arrives that week. It’s always going to be a big ask for anyone to come off a plane and play.

“We've had him for a good little two-week break and training [so he] should be well integrated with the team. I think that he should replace that piece of Justin pretty nicely and hopefully we start to see some wins rack up on the board.”

Froling also says the off-court effect of losing a player should not be underestimated.

“What a lot of people don't see behind the scenes is the relationships the players form with these guys on the team. Sometimes it's they're your mate and if they're not performing and they're put on the chopping block you don't want to see him go down,” he said.

“It can be quite disruptive. You've been training together for a whole year - to bring in someone completely new is always going to be difficult, especially midway through the year.

“Injuries happen. It's part of the sport and it sucks adjusting to that. Across the league hopefully there's not too many people cut, because you never want to see someone lose their job like that.”

The Hawks take on Sydney in the Freeway Series on Sunday afternoon.