Hawks' Buy-In Drove Peatling's Free Agency Call

Memories are short in sport. The comparatively successful campaigns of the NBL21 and NBL22 seasons of the Illawarra Hawks have quickly been forgotten, in favour of the side’s dismal 3-25 record last season.

That record – the worst the club has posted since its inaugural season in the NBL in 1979 – hasn’t fazed new signings in readily committing to the team.

Amongst the most active sides in NBL Free Agency so far, the Hawks have brought in the young talent of Lachlan Olbrich and Next Star AJ Johnson, alongside the more measured, experienced presence of former Melbourne United championship winner Mason Peatling.

Out of their 25 losses last season, the Hawks lost 14 of those by 10 points or less. Of those 14 narrow defeats, seven of those came by six points or less.

Looking at the the win-loss record doesn't paint a pretty sight, but Peatling says the ability to look deeper at what the Hawks achieved last season helped him make the decision to take his talents to Wollongong.

“As much as their record didn’t suggest they had a great year last year you could see how close they were to tipping a lot of games in their favour,” Peatling told NBL Media. “You could see the way they were playing, they had established a brand and the guys were bought in. That showed to me that, top down, they were all really invested in the same thing, and I value that really highly.

“The NBL is the type of league that can flip really quickly, and if you get the right guys together and the right people are in place then things can change really quickly, so the NBL in itself being so topsy-turvy is very exciting.

“You could see what they’re building from the outside and to be a part of it going forward is a new challenge for me in basketball is something to be excited about.”

One of the key players within the Hawks’ program is co-captain and star guard Tyler Harvey. You only have to look at the emotional celebrations following his game-winning shot over the Breakers to see how much he’s bought into the Hawks’ organisation.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">TYLER HARVEY TO WIN THE GAME. HE IS MAGIC ?<br><br>UNRIVALLED DRAMA<br><br>WHAT A GAME OF NBL BASKETBALL ? <a href="https://t.co/218UNw8XkS">pic.twitter.com/218UNw8XkS</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1615989417155637250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 19, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Peatling’s links with Harvey go back further than purely being opponents over the course of the past three seasons.

Both players represented Eastern Washington in their college basketball days. Harvey played for the Eagles between 2012-2015 and during his time in the program, earned two First Team All-Big Sky nominations and won the NCAA Scoring title.

Both Peatling and new Illawarra teammate Tyler Harvey had successful collegiate careers with Eastern Washington.

Peatling arrived in the program in 2016, and in a four-year college career was named Big Sky Player of the Year in 2020 – the same season he dropped a Big Sky-record 54 points against Multnomah University.

“I’ve known about Tyler Harvey for a long time,” Peatling reflected. “He’s an East Washington legend.

“I never had the chance to play with him in my college days, but his photo was up on the wall and he was something to aspire to. Playing with him is super exciting for me.

“He’s probably the type of player I think I complement well anyway – playing with (Chris) Goulding the last three years, that shooting outside perimeter guard is something I think I can help set up with some good screens and handoffs and if he misses any shots I can go and get a couple of rebounds.

“Then the little things like having a young coach like Jacob (Jackomas), my last three of the four years was with a first-time coach and that was a super exciting challenge because everyone is learning as you go.

“Now, Jacob is going to know his brand and know what he wants but when you’re in the beginnings of your development as a coach or a player there’s so much potential, and to be a part of that challenge is really exciting for me.”

Any time a player moves on from their hometown club is a bitter-sweet moment though, and for Peatling – who is currently playing for the Knox Raiders in NBL1 South – the move to the Hawks represents the first time he will be playing professionally outside of his hometown.

He has departed United with 87 appearances to his name, along with a championship and the record for most starts made by a development player in a season, with 21.

Mason Peatling won an NBL title with Melbourne United in his first season in professional basketball.

“Being a Melbourne kid, playing for United the last three years has been awesome,” he said. “Winning a championship in my first year as a development player, I couldn’t have written it any better.

“In the Boomers window I spent time with ‘Norto’ (Mitch Norton), ‘Blanch’ (Todd Blanchfield) and Kyle Adnam, and you have an understanding of how many NBL teams they’ve played for along the journey.

“Different teams are going to have different needs at different times, and if you want to make a career out of playing basketball and getting the best basketball out of yourself you’re going to have to understand the game.

“The Illawarra Hawks put a great opportunity in front of me and I’m super excited about it.

“I’m super excited about the season coming up and I’m not looking back.”