The Just Better Care Wollongong Roller Hawks are set for a showdown with the Darwin Salties when the NWBL Finals tip off this Friday at the Northern Beaches Indoor Sports Centre. 

 

The Roller Hawks finished second to first placed Darwin and will square off in the major semi final for the right to advance directly to the Gold Medal game on Sunday.

The Salties present an imposing obstacle having lost just one game all season, the good news is that one loss was to the Roller Hawks.

Both sides will go into the Finals with a disrupted preparation after the league took a break to accommodate an Aussie Rollers tour in Europe.

The squad included Roller Hawks Tristan Knowles, Jontee Brown, Luke Pople and Tomas Klein and Salties players Tom O’Neill-Thorne, Jaylen Brown and Jannik Blair. 

After two weeks as teammates in the green and gold, hostilities will resume on Friday between two teams with a burgeoning rivalry. 

The two teams fought out last year’s grand final with Darwin winning on the Roller Hawks’ home court by just three points. This year the Roller Hawks inflicted Darwin’s only loss 77-69 in Darwin but were also beaten by the Salties 80-59 and 90-66 in the other two fixtures that round.

The team that wins the major semi final will advance directly to Sunday’s grand final while the loser will get a second chance against the winner of Perth Wheelcats vs Southern Districts Spartans. 

That was the path the Roller Hawks took last season but the side will be hoping to secure a win on Friday to earn a rest day on Saturday.

This weekend will also include the Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL) finals with Wollongong local Didem Yildirim and Roller Hawk Hannah Dodd lining up for the Sydney Uni Lions while WBA will also host the first ever 3X3 Finals on Saturday.

The format for the 3X3 Finals sees 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd with the winners advancing directly to the Grand Final. The Roller Hawks finished second in the men’s 3X3 Division and will take on the Perth Wheelcats.

Lining up for the Roller Hawks in 3X3 are Jarrod Emeny, Brian Gardner, Ethan Hallak and Tim Rushby-Smith. Their semi final tips off on Saturday at 10:30am with the Final at 12:00pm.