A heated Illawarra Hawks training session where players at one stage had to stop two of their team-mates from coming to blows was welcomed by coach Jacob Jackomas and his skipper Sam Froling.
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Tensions boiled over between Justin Robinson and Will Hickey as Jackomas put players through an intense training session on Tuesday.
Froling said afterwards the competitive hit-out was a good sign for a Hawks side keen to improve drastically on last-season's poor campaign.
"I mean, if it's not competitive, it's probably not a good sign. It shows guys care and they really want it. That's promising heading into the season," he said.
"It's been good, it's been intense, we've got a talented group, everyone is keen to play.
"It's competitive, guys are competing for spots and minutes, it's a good sign."
Jackomas echoed the sentiments of his skipper, adding players were keen to put their best foot forward with the season start just six weeks away.
"They're training pretty hard. This week we're on a bit of a de-load week, we've only got two hard sessions and the guys are really hungry to play," he said.
"There was a lot of emotions and all that out there, which is okay, we're finding out a lot about ourselves, which is great."
It's a new look Hawks side from last season but Jackomas said the playing group had a real sense of familiarity and comfortability about it.
He added although a number of new players had joined the squad, fitting the pieces together was proving easier than expected.
"It hasn't been as hard as you would think with that many players coming in," Jackomas said.
"Obviously, the basketball is difficult but the actually getting to know each other, isn't. With everyone, there is pretty much a bit of a link.
"We recruited Mason [Peatling] when he came out of school and he has a relationship with Tyler {Harvey] from the same college, which is big, so there is a familiarity there.
"Biwali [Bayles] and Davo [Will Hickey] are best friends, Wani [Swaka Lo Buluk] and [Hyunjung] Le are best friends.
"Jay [Justin Robinson] was here, Gary [Glark] was recommended to us by Mike, so there's just a little bit of a small separation between the group and the new guys.
"Now it's just about basketball and they understand it's a professional environment.
"We have a competitive environment coming in with the amount of good players we have. It's on them now to get it going and they have done a great job so far, I couldn't be happier."
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
