By Tyler Lewis
While Rowville is the hottest team in the Eastern Football Netball League (EFNL), Hawks coach Ben Wise has confirmed his sides belly is far from full at round 5.
It seems to be a weekly reoccurring headline for the Hawks, as they face a bigger challenge each week and then proceed to overcome that challenge with some style.
It’s the same this week, as the Hawks will travel to take on Doncaster East, which is – like Rowville – an improved outfit in 2022.
In fact, its first v second on the table, with the winner set to earn further respect of the competition.
While sides lower on the table are yet to take on Rowville, Wise believes his side won’t be going into any match this year with a shred of complacency.
“There is no rest at this level with the amount of good sides,” he said.
“Everyone is beating everyone and everyone is losing, look at Norwood and a couple of sides that aren’t going as well as they thought they would at the start of the year, but they’re still really dangerous games.
“Park Orchards have jumped out, we’ve jumped out, and even Donny East.
“Probably us and Donny East have surprised everyone, we know how good Donny East are – their top five, six, seven players are as good as any in the comp.
“They have players with higher level (and) AFL experience on their list and look like they’re stringing it together nicely.”
As for his expectation for the clash against the Lions, Wise is confident the start of this game is going to be one onlooker’s will not want to miss.
“It’s going to be a hot footy,” he said.
“They’re going to be ready to go; they’ve had a couple of tough weeks, against good opposition of South Croydon and Noble Park.
“We’ve had a tough four weeks I reckon, I just think it’s going to be a great game of footy.
“The style they play is that they like to get it and run, they score heavily as well so we will look at how we’re going to combat their ball movement.
“It’s pretty exciting for the comp to have one v two and hopefully we come out on top.”
The Hawks will travel to Zerbes Reserve today with ambitions of improving its run to six successive wins.
