Complete guesses: White, Martin, Coenraad, Clarke, Jervis.

Matt Flinn will be suiting up again by the look of things

They should go for Xavier Cook

Any news on Conger?

I'm not sure the hawks will have the finances to retain Conger, you would think brisbane would chase him hard, amongst others.

Loe would have been a solid signing next to AJ considering what they can spend. They could have possibly covered for losing either Kay or Norton but losing both is a tough ask. Bevo really built that team around both. That being the case, they may have to let Rot go and chase an import 1 and 4. Or they could resign Cody and start him next to AJ allowing them to retain Rot and sign a PG and wing from the states.

Going to be a tough period for both Cairns and Illawarra but their communities will hopefully recognise the challenges they face and increase their support.

He'd be great for the cats. Already familiar with a couple of blokes on their team too....

Who was it who had the beef with Cody and are they still at the Hawks? They might have to lock in the locals they can get and then grab imports shrewdly. That'd mean keeping relatively unexciting options like Martin, White, etc.

Is Glover expected to be playing any time soon?

If they bring back much of last year's squad but without Kay and Norton, and can't find the equivalent of Conger, I'm not seeing where they can reliably improve. Three imports will be vital.

"I feel like they are going through the motions this year, in order to move to Melb next season."

100%

Feels the same to me. Hopefully it's just that with Campbell in there, they're working on things internally and just not remembering to push out the sort of news that keeps fans onboard and players thinking they're alive.

I think it'd be worth a couple of stories with the Mercury and maybe some announcements. The only Hawks-specific stories on the first page of "Illawarra Mercury - Sport - Basketball" are about Kay and Norton leaving. Not great signs. :|

It would be very difficult for Stratford to maintain things if crowd attendance can't lift above 3-4k avg. Unless he's willing & able to put much more of his own money into the team, its going to get harder & harder.

Attracting new investors may be the priority ATM but without an attractive product, it won't get him much money. I can't think of much viable solutions that won't require him to put more money in.

They need to get 3 exciting imports, be competitive, more active marketing with perhaps trying to link up with St.George NRL for cross promo & encroach into Southern Sydney? Easier said than done though.

That's why my guess would be a tough season this year, then very hard for the owner to justify staying in the comp the following year. Would like to be proven wrong, obviously.

Crowds were meagre last year, then you lose their best two prospects and presume that Conger is difficult to retain. What's left that would maintain let alone lift the crowd?

Ideally you'd go for Kenny or similar to try and freshen up the squad, maybe announce a rotation player early. Based on public info now, if I was a player with options, I'd be worried about taking the Hawks option.

Hawks imo should go young, get college guys as most of the new recruits

Keep Ogilvy, White, Coenraad, Cody Ellis

If possible Clark and Conger, ultimately get the 3 best imports you can find

Add in Cooks, Naar and a couple of other college guys

Gives them something like

Ogilvy
Import
Import
Clark or new import combo guard
Naar

??Rookie or Jervis/Majok type
Ellis
Coenraad
Cooks
White

Something like that if they can get Ogilvy fit and firing, Naar can be a productive rookie playmaker and 3 good imports could be pretty competitive

Crowds were meagre last year, then you lose their best two prospects and presume that Conger is difficult to retain. What's left that would maintain let alone lift the crowd?

No way they will get Cooks. And according to his agent on Twitter there is no way Cooks will be in the NBL in the immediate future.