Sixers use adversity to help galvanise

THE Sydney Sixers sure can roll with the punches.

Then again, all BBL clubs have had little choice but to fight their way through the toughest season in the competition’s history.

Still, the defending champions have dominated this summer and sit firmly on top of the ladder — despite missing their Australian Test stars and playing zero home games due to COVID restrictions.

Not even the pressure of winning back-to-back titles seems to have fazed the Sixers. So, what’s their secret? “It’s this bond they share, both the players and staff,” Sixers general manager Jodie Hawkins said. “A lot of teams tend to have cliques, but this group doesn’t. They’re a good solid group of people who have each other’s backs, and I think honestly that’s the reason we’ve coped so well.”

Take the hotel breakfast, for example.

“You never feel like if you pull up a chair next to a group of people that you‘re imposing, you just feel like another person at the table,” Hawkins said.

“It’s like being in a family environment and that’s what’s got us through.”

Hawkins arrived at the Sixers a decade ago and moved into the GM role in 2018.

She has long worked to build the club’s “family” culture that she feels has kept everyone positive this season.

“We’ve had good days and bad days. We obviously had to tell a lot of our Sydney-based players that their families couldn’t come in over Christmas, players and staff,” Hawkins said. “It’s been a tough run with some of the news we’ve been dealt through this period, but we rally together … we did a Christmas Eve dinner, Cricket Australia put on a Christmas Day lunch, we went out on New Year’s Eve as a group.”