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.
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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.