Hawks star: JT lets us do what most coaches won’t

Milton Doyle helped spark the Illawarra Hawks to a much-needed win, but it was the defensive end where they needed to take more pride as a group. They did, and now they have to keep doing it.

The Hawks arrived at John Cain Arena at 1-6 and on a three-game losing streak, having conceded 108 points across their first four road games – losses to New Zealand, Brisbane, Sydney and South East Melbourne.

Scoring hadn’t been the problem. Illawarra had put up 100-plus points in four of its seven games and was averaging 99.7, so the focus was squarely on defence.

After conceding 27 points in the first quarter, the Hawks knuckled down, holding Melbourne to 16 in the second on 6/18 shooting with nine turnovers.

That set up a 91-89 victory that still went down to the wire, with Doyle posting 16 points and 7 assists against his team of last season.

All he cared about, though, was the win and the defensive performance.

“Guard your yard and take some pride in being an actual professional athlete playing a little defence, and playing for each other,” Doyle said.

“It was just good to get a victory, it doesn’t matter against who, and especially the way we did it holding them to 89. That’s great for us and builds a little bit of momentum going into these next few games.

“I think we’re so great offensively that we slipped a little in these first six or seven games on the defensive end, but now we’ve been focusing on that and JT’s been on us about it, and today was the start of it.”

Having played in very structured systems under Scott Roth at Tasmania and Dean Vickerman at Melbourne, Doyle enjoys the greater freedom Justin Tatum gives his players at the Hawks.

It hasn’t always paid off so far this season, but Doyle believes both he and the team will end up thriving, with his alley-oops to big man Makur Maker a showcase of what it can produce.

“It’s just getting back to my youth days and how I used to play and I think that’s how most of the guys here play,” Doyle said.

“They play off the freedom that JT gives us which is a great vibe to have from a coach, and a lot of coaches don’t let you shoot you certain shots and keep you on a short leash. So I’m just realising what I can do within our offence and when to do it, and I’m just learning that.

“That was something that me and Tyler (Harvey) talked about and we just figured it out with MK on the court.

“JT gives you the freedom to make adjustments on the fly and a lot of coaches don’t do that so to be able to do that when you have veteran guys on the court, that earned us two easy points and got MK in a groove to help us win a game too.”