Hawks leader prepares himself for 'tough' homecoming to Temora

For the first time, Gerhard will enter Nixon Park as a member of the opposition as part of role as playing assistant coach at East Wagga-Kooringal this year.

It will be the same for Hawks coach Jake Barrett, another home-grown Temora product.

Gerhard admits it will be a difficult homecoming.

"That was probably the hardest thing about making that move to East Wagga was having to play against my home club in Temora," Gerhard said.

"It's obviously going to be pretty tough but I'm also looking forward to getting back there and playing some good footy.

"Guys like Will Reinhold and them type of fellas, I played a lot of footy with him. I've still got a lot of close friends back there, which will be still kicking around in the twos. I've got a lot of close mates there. We'll definitely catch up after and it will be good."

The Hawks will be looking for a response after suffering a surprise 12-point loss to Marrar at Gumly Oval last Saturday.

The Hawks had 16 scoring shots to Marrar's eight, but their 4.12 proved costly.

"Every club has one of them days throughout the year and we sort of hope that's our last one," he said.

"Looking back on the game tape, we definitely missed a lot of opportunities, it was pretty disappointing to be honest, missing some goals there but we've got to bounce back and to kick some goals this week will be nice."

Gerhard said despite the kicking in front of goal, there were plenty of positives to take from the performance.

"The way we moved it from our half-back line into our forward line was very pleasing, we switched the ball really well," he said.

"I suppose when you're not converting the goals it puts a bit of panic into the team and it goes back to old ways and we just got caught in that third and fourth quarters just kicking long down the line and it just got cut off.

"We've got to stick to our game plan this weekend and backing our game plan to win."

Luke Cuthbert suffered a dislocated shoulder in the loss to Marrar last Saturday but got it back in and played out the game.

Gerhard said it will take some management but does not expect Cuthbert to miss any football.

"He's pretty tough, Cuthy. He got it back in. I didn't know about it until after the game, that's the way he plays," he said.

"He's on limited training this week and we'll just manage him for the next few weeks and it's probably something he'll have to look to get surgery on at the end of the season."

The Hawks will lose Kassidy Argus after he dislocated his shoulder playing touch earlier in the week.

Temora got their first win of the season last Saturday in the shape of a 37-point win over North Wagga.

Gerhard expects his team to come out firing.

"We were pretty flat on Sunday and that about the result, we thought we were the better team for the majority of the game, we just couldn't convert," he said.

"We're ready to go, fired up, we've got to bounce back and that's the best thing about footy, you get next week to improve your game."