How to watch & talking points: Illawarra v New Zealand

04 Jan 2026

illawarra hawks

new zealand breakers

The Illawarra Hawks host the New Zealand Breakers in a must-win Sunday afternoon clash for both sides.

Illawarra Hawks (7th) v New Zealand Breakers (8th)
Sunday, January 11, 2.30pm AEDT
WIN Entertainment Centre

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Talking points

Last chance
Both of these teams are on the outside of the top six and trying to string together wins to give themselves a chance of climbing the ladder.

Unfortunately after tough losses by both of them, this looks to be the last chance for one of these teams to stay in the hunt.

Tasmania, who are currently sixth, keep winning and creating space between them and the bottom four teams. All the Hawks and Breakers can do is control what they can control and that's winning right now.

Breakers stars to bounce back
It was a disappointing result in New Zealand for the entire team, especially Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Sam Mennenga and Rob Baker, who had nights to forget against the Kings.

From what the Breakers have shown this year, if two of their main stars are struggling in the same game, they simply don't have enough to win.

Expect to see a much more aggressive mindset from them here as they look to put Fridays game behind them.

What they're saying

Hawks wing Wani Swaka Lo Buluk on his side's season to date:
"We're not winning, so when I've had these career-highs, it's often during a loss," he said.

"You look at it differently. For better or worse, it's not the first time individual results swayed from the group's.

"This one's a rollercoaster, but there's still a belief in the group. We've shown that we can do it, we're only hurting ourselves in certain games. We're not completely out.

"We still want to keep winning and we're doing it for the fans."

Breakers coach Petteri Koponen on his side bouncing back against Illawarra:
"We know Illawarra are much better now with Sam Froling back, shown by how they are playing.

"It's going to be a different kind of challenge than Sydney is, but we can't get too into our own feelings and need to regroup. It's moments like these where your true character shows up depending on how you respond. It's up to us to stick together.

"It's up to us to focus on the right aspects of the game and how that impacts winning, because we need to bring a totally new energy if we're going to compete with Illawarra."