Weekend sports preview | September 20, 2024 | Illawarra Mercury - video Dailymotion

Illawarra Mercury

WATCH: Illawarra Mercury sports reporters Jordan Warren and Agron Latifi preview local sport semi-finals, as well as the start of the Illawarra Hawks NBL season.

Transcript

00:00Hello and happy Friday. Jordan Warren here from the Illawarra Mercury.

00:02Joined as always on a Friday by my colleague, Agron Latifi.

00:05Agron, how are you going, mate, first off?

00:06Very good. Very good.

00:07That's good, mate.

00:07There's plenty of action heading your way this weekend.

00:10Of course, you've seen grand finals are plenty, which has been great.

00:12We saw Djering on Lions get up last week in the Group 7

00:15and other grand finals as well.

00:17But yeah, we've got to be excited about the Illawarra Hawks starting tomorrow night.

00:22Obviously, you're a Hawks man, mate.

00:23Tell me, tell me, what are the prospects for this season?

00:25Obviously, a massive season last year under Justin Tate.

00:27It was a massive season.

00:28Obviously, they started slowly, but they finished great.

00:32Funnily enough, speaking about their prospects,

00:34not many, not many people are tipping them to do well this year,

00:37but I think they will.

00:38I think they've got the nucleus on the same side.

00:41Gary Clark's a huge loss, obviously, a huge loss.

00:43But they've brought in two very good inputs in Darius Daze and Trey Kell.

00:48And they start the season off tomorrow, as all teams do,

00:51as part of Hoops Fest in Perth.

00:54So they play the Cairns Taipans at 8.30pm tomorrow night.

00:57But I think they're in for a very good season.

01:02I'm excited. I can't wait for it to start.

01:04Yeah, get excited, Hawks fans.

01:05And we should also mention, as I said earlier,

01:07plenty of semi-final action heading your way this weekend on the local scene.

01:10In the football, first off, we've got Illawarra Premier League

01:12preliminary final between Coniston and Wollongong United

01:16on Sunday at Wetherill Park at Primby.

01:18So the winner of that will go on to play Wollongong Olympic at Wynn Stadium

01:21next week.

01:21And we should also mention the District League as well.

01:24Of course, our league champions, Oak Flats, up against Djeringong.

01:26If Djeringong can get up in that game, that would be a massive story.

01:29Obviously, Djeringong in the Community League just a couple of seasons ago.

01:32We've also should mention a very important game at Leichhardt Oval

01:35on Saturday at 4.45pm.

01:37The Illawarra Steelers, they're playing in their semi-final.

01:40They're hoping to make a grand final.

01:41They lost at this stage last year,

01:43so they're looking to rectify those wrongs from last year.

01:45But we'll keep on the rugby league theme, mate.

01:47Obviously, we've seen the Dragons men's season finish.

01:49We've got, obviously, the Dragons women's have got their last game tomorrow,

01:53which is Jamie Soward's last game.

01:55They played the Broncos in Townsville.

01:57They can't make finals, obviously.

01:58They're trying to avoid last place.

02:00What have you made of the Dragons' season, mate?

02:02Let's start with the Jamie Soward and the women's, obviously,

02:05but then we'll move into the men's.

02:06But what have you made of it?

02:07Well, especially with Jamie Soward.

02:08Obviously, he was the inaugural coach of the NRL Dragons.

02:12So now they've got to find a new coach.

02:14They haven't had a great season.

02:16You know, you can't sugarcoat it.

02:17It hasn't been a great season.

02:19So that's the first issue.

02:20They need to find a new coach.

02:22With the Dragons, I mean,

02:24on paper, like,

02:26Shane Flanagan, if he's improved the side,

02:28definitely improved it.

02:29You know, they've won more games than they won last year.

02:32But, obviously, they had a bad end to the season.

02:36And that's what people remember.

02:39Though, now there's talk about Ben Hunt.

02:42There's talk about they're trying to get rid of Ben Hunt,

02:46which we don't know if that's true or it's just paper talk.

02:49But the question is, the CEO's left, Ryan Webb's left.

02:52So there's a lot of issues around the club at the moment.

02:56Hopefully, they get sorted because, you know,

02:58Dragons fans are keen for a winning team.

03:02And if there's instability off the field,

03:04there's hardly stability on the field, is there?

03:06So let's hope they get sorted.

03:08We'll wait and see.

03:09And, of course, we'll be across it.

03:10Head to the Illawarra Mercury website for all Dragons

03:12and all local sport news coming your way.

Weekend sports preview | September 20, 2024 | Illawarra Mercury

Category

Transcript

Recommended