Wow. Cairns are now in a lot of trouble.

Agreed. That is a seriously poor piece of "judgement" by Cairns Basketball.

How often does an Editorial ever get written about basketball. She is pissed off.

great post by Jennifer Spilsbury - load of crap by Cairns Basketball and the Taipans.

I dont think even the dumbest Cairns fans (and there are a lot to choose from) would defend this.

"No-one reads the Cairns Post anymore. Cairns Basketball on the otherhand livestream QBL games for free"

No idea how those two things are meant to be related.

If you dont have a good relationship with your local media, you're doomed.

Newspapers last century media.

Good on them, thats their job. But taking away media accreditation narrows the readership so they've just cut off their nose to spite their face.

And what was last months issue? Anyone forwarding a Members Only email would be removed from the mailing list? This is completely not how you do PR, and if this carries over to the NBL then the league needs to step in and stop these shenanigans.

If no one reads it, why care so much?

Wilson doesn't read it, therefore no one reads it.

The best part about this post is it that is an anonymous thread with mostly anonymous comments. we see you Cairns Post employees!!!!!

As if anyone actually read that and thought hoops cared lol

Media not getting access to a sports team? What a unusual concept

How is it a normal concept?

Run by the same people, isn't it?

Clubs with good relationships with their local media... Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and New Zealand... Hmm, wonder if there is anything in that?

Unfortunately there is an absurd arrogance to some journalists. They first of all believe they have a right to know everything and to be treated like VIPs, and at the same time believe they should not be held accountable for their actions.

In the days of yore, when print media was god, they could get away with this, but with the proliferation of online sources, its a joke.

Poor journalists also invest too much pride and ego in their work, and see the need to perpetually justify earlier negativity.

End of the day, with every blogger and his dog asking for courtside seats, media priveliges have to be earnt.

Yeah we cant have accredited journalists being accredited. Makes perfect sense.
You really think bloggers are actually going to go to a game, rather than give their expert opinions from analysing a score sheet?

Dude, you need to join the 21st century

The online newspapers are important part of the 21st century and what Cairns has done is simply dumb.

LK needs to have a word to Cairns about this. Absolutely ridiculous, especially in a small market with only one newspaper.

My LK comment was about the Taipans night time press releases. Stupid behaviour.

Small town mentality. Townsville were exactly the same.

> As CT has pointed out previously "there's a lot of people here assuming that Cairns Basketball and the Cairns Taipans are one and the same entity..". They are not. Cairns Basketball oversees the Marlins and Dolphins and has cancelled the Cairns Posts media accreditation for QBL games involving them (NOT the Taipans).

As I asked previously, are they not run by the same people?

How do you explain the threats to members for forwarding on club newsletters? It seems the people running Cairns Bball are petty, and ultimately causing further damage.

Sorry Twinkletoes but you're not doing a great job separating the two. They may be different entities but if there is at least one common demoninator AND questionable media practice has taken place under both entities. You can’t pretend that one decision that gets made by one isn’t going to get made by the other.

Exactly anon above, the two happening at the same time aren't a coincidence.

Townsville wasn't a boys club, the demise of townsville came from losing a free 600 space car park and increasing Renton the Jupiters casino stadium......

hilarious...

Don't worry the bloggers will report it all.

> There are two separate issues at play and two different courses of action being taken. The Taipans issue has been going on for some time whereas the Cairns Basketball issue only happened a few days ago.

And if the same person/people are responsible for those actions, then it stands to reason that something has gone wrong with Cairns basketball (be it the QBL team, or the Taipans).

Why did the Taipans threaten members if they forwarded an email? Who was responsible for that?

> Cairns Basketball general manager Michael Scott says the move follows two reports, one of them a four-line comment piece, that weren't to his liking.

It is a journey being taken down a similar path as the NBL’s Taipans, of which Mr Scott is also a board member. (The Taipans CEO, Mark Beecroft is also the president of Cairns Basketball and therefore Mr Scott’s boss.)

So is this inaccurate?

> And from my memory, the Taipans didn't 'threaten' anyone.
> If you don't agree to play along you get taken off the priority email list

Which they verbalised to their members by saying if you share this then you will be removed, otherwise known as a threat.

So a fan can pay extra for EARLY news, and if it doesn't go to plan (in todays modern world filled with social media) then they should complain and the club with make pathetic threats to further alienate other fans...

Yep, Cairns are done. They're countering the steps that the rest of the league is taking to get more people involved. If they don't continue to kill themselves with these sorts of decisions then LK should do the right thing and take their licence back.

That they give out announcements like this an hour early or whatever to certain members and not expect it to leak in today's social media age shows how out of touch the club is.

In the 21st century if you put out news and expect it to not spread on social media or by word of mouth, you're pretty stupid lol

"In the 21st century if you post Anonymously and expect to get credibility on social media you're pretty stupid lol"

Not expecting any credibility for stating the obvious. News spreads like wildfire now with social media, it's foolish to think news would stay a secret. At the end of the day i don't see how it even really matters if news about an NBL signing spreads.

Cairns isn't out of touch... it's because everyone here knows each other, so when members write it on social media we actually know who they are. I know 2 members that complained

We don't have 15000 members like Perth. Funny thing is since that email it hasn't happened again

They shouldn't have a licence because they are actively working against the current values of the league ie solid marketing and fan engagement. To say that only some fans should know first, then chastise those that dont agree, is a marketing fail and if Cairns want to operate that way then I dont care if this is their last season.

Who said the fans who leaked are looking for credibility? Maybe they just want to have a discussion about the news with others, and letting them do that by social media is free marketing. To stop that is petty and narrow-minded.

Note to potential leakers - don't leak on Facebook because it's your real name posted (derr) so post those leaks here as Anon. Thanks.

But the club has also stopped discussion about their news/signings. Instead of relishing the publicity, they have put a stop to it with a dumb rule. Combine that with this media nonsense and they are really doing their best to alienate themselves from their fan base.

Get as many people talking about your club as you can. That isn't rocket science either, that is Marketing 101.

"There's nothing to see here"

That's what Cairns fans will be saying by the end of this season....

Cairns Basketball Inc and Taipans are interlinked but the 2 are separate operating entities. The acrimony between cairns post is actually a general gripe between all sporting codes and the sensationalism masked as journalism that comes out in newspaper at times. Cairns basketball and Taipans Inc are taking a stand basically - Taipans members get early release info directly and the 2 tv stations in WIN and 7 give better daily coverage of all sports inc QBL/NBL then the newspaper-Facebook is faster then the cairns post and it reports facts not hoops.com.au rumour and bullshit that gets thrown up. Having dealt with the CP for work, you are better off going to ABC grandstand and the tv stations if you want blanket coverage.

This has started a few years back when all rags from cairns to Mackay are now run out of the Townsville head office - the Townsville Bulletin is similarly run and shares articles with cairns and Mackay newspapers ie. qbl nbl nrl afl etc. since then, it's all about scandle and sensationalism and Jordan Gerrans (nice enough bloke) trying to get the big scoop as he climbs the ladder - he is the bloke who stirred the pot claiming the nbl was going backwards etc etc blah and made national news. Ex-Perth journalist so he has no bias for Cairns or bias for anyone. But you can tell reading all 3 regional city rags which I do, it’s less about reporting what’s going on and more about finding phantom bullshit.

That said, Mike Scott is probably the worst person I have had to deal with. He is hard to get a hold of, comes out the media talking crap about the Jimmy Mitchell departure and gets called out when the player says hey no you did this, don’t try and sponsor a player cause mike doesn’t return calls or get organised etc etc. he is no angel and he needs to let someone else run the operations as he just isn’t up to it. Someone like Jordan G is just all over him and he doesn’t know what to do.

Mark Beecroft is another paradox - he is superb with corporate sponsors and is bringing in bigger numbers yearly - but he stinks when it comes to joe blogs members. This leaves members annoyed especially when you submit suggestions, see the guy and says oh we tried that or we checked into it we got told to do this. If it wasn’t for the fine work of the office staff and support staff for game day stuff, it just wouldn’t be the same. We have the right people there, but we lost our Media Manager a few years back and when you put someone like Beecroft and even Fearne who are so media unsavy without supervision, Jordan G’s of the world smell blood.

Fearne was very truculent with the media - that just wasn’t him. And when you have Beecroft telling the media it’s Fearne’s call on all players etc and then Fearne says he got no support for player issues (Carrera, gripes about favouritism, paying Nate a lot and not being fit/light enough so lenient on him as the rumours go) blah blah - Jordan G has smelled blood and gone in for the kill. This has then flowed to Cairns BBall QBL side of things because similar issues of key local players moving elsewhere due to a perceived or otherwise support/value ie. Mitchell, Adekponya, Vale or favouritism for Taipans dev players playing QBL over other players - it’s a competitive environment and some will miss out. But again a Jordan G will find the disgruntled player, true or not and apply pressure. Because the media manager role is shared and not a dedicated - we get the current situation.

Cairns Post can still cover QBL, they just buy their own tickets. The focus is more on QBL media (online) and TV.

NBL in general is using more online/TV then newspaper so it’s not surprising the attempt for more exclusive announcements etc to give value to members. Does it work ? I don’t think it adds value just put it online but give members a heads up and do a press release the next day.

It’s not the end of the world - is it dumb for QBL teams ? Yes because it’s a media outlet that’s annoyed. Will it last forever ? No.

Is it related to the NBL side of the things ? No they aren’t linked even with the cross org people - the Taipans are trying something with the NBL office to add value to members to announce at night etc - use videos via social media etc to get info out faster as the Post is much slower and well Taipans management is a bit butt hurt over last seasons fiasco and didn’t handle it very well. Kelly is a much different communicator and runs his own show which will keep Beecroft out the team stuff and back to what he does best. Player announcements will still some out out of sync with the rags and tv but if the TV stations who cover all of NQ (not just cairns - Mackay up) can get access and report on the sport not the kardashian style conjecture then so can the Cairns post with smaller coverage.

End of the day, Taipans still make an operating surplus every year, still do more engagement with the community then any other team, still put up a competitive team every year and run a Taipans Academy for developing players (Mark Worthington came through that) and deserve a bit more respect then what they get from the Post lately. Cairns Basketball runs all the highly successful junior rep teams and the qbl teams also needs more credit then what they get and we can’t keep all players all the time - Wigness will be a super star and he came through CB. Too much butt hurt on both sides and let’s hope level heads prevail or we get a board spill and put new leadership in with media smarts

I remember a couple of years ago when Nick Marvin sent an email in the middle of the night to an exclusive group of corporate members. It was to announce they'd re-signed Prather, and also picked up McKay. He said he wanted to share the news with that group first but he didn't say they couldn't share it online etc.

Coincidentally (or not) this was the day that united were due to make the announcement of their big signings, which ended up being that former NBA player with goggles who lasted maybe half the season.

By the end of the day, virtually no one on Hoops or Twitter was talking about the United signing - it was all Perth. He got his own fanbase pumped while stealing United's thunder. It was a great marketing strategy, cost him nothing, and he didn't piss off any fans or members of the media while doing so. Maybe Cairns could take a leaf out of his book.

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM CAIRNS BASKETBALL REGARDING THE RECENT CAIRNS POST EDITORIAL (Explains/Confirms what many have said - it's 1 journo being a douche so they killed his accreditation not TCP’s. CBI are being sookie and should be able to handle criticism but Jordan G is known for stirring numerous pots nationally as well.)


To all our valued Sponsors, Members and Supporters -

Cairns Basketball has been the subject of inaccurate and speculative reporting in the Cairns Post, for most of the past 2 years which up until this point has been disregarded.

Cairns Basketball has made a number of approaches to the Cairns Post in an attempt to resolve these issues to no avail

However, the editorial piece by Cairns Post in the Weekend Post (Saturday 12 May 2018) contains so many statements that are sadly, simply inaccurate, we feel we are left with no alternative but to address these inaccuracies and provide clarity for our supporters

Cairns Post: This week, Cairns Basketball cancelled the Cairns Post’s media accreditation for QBL games. This is the latest attempt to stifle local coverage of sport and to somehow try and bully us into reporting what they want, when they want.

Fact: Cairns Basketball DID NOT cancel media accreditation for the Cairns Post.

We cancelled the accreditation for ONE journalist.

Cairns Basketball does not need to stifle local coverage of sport –7 Local News, Nine News, WIN News, , Star FM, 4CA, ABC Far North and other radio stations all attend games and training sessions at their preference. Coaches and players are also available to any media while on the road throughout the QBL season.

Cairns Post: At a time when the National Basketball League is doing everything it can to grow its sport, Cairns Basketball administrators are doing all they can to destroy it.

Fact: This is highly inflammatory and offensive to the administrators, the Management committee , the staff and over 400 hundred volunteers that support and contribute to Cairns Basketball and its growing success.

The Cairns Post is clearly not aware of the current state of Cairns Basketball. CBI facility is currently undergoing significant renovations, which include the addition of a new court to support rapidly growing participation. The editor has failed to recognise the impressive financial stability and facilities expansion which is in line with Cairns Regional Council, State and Federal Government and Basketball Queensland’s growth strategies.

The Cairns Post has failed to recognise the impressive financial stability and facilities expansion which is in line with Cairns Regional Council, State and Federal Government and Basketball Queensland’s growth strategies.

Furthermore, Cairns Basketball continues to be a leading association in the state. In 2016, Cairns Basketball won the Vince Hickey Trophy for the first time in the history of the awards which dates back to 1990. The Vince Hickey Award is based on Junior State Championship results and goes to the most successful association across all boys and girls age groups. This success validates that the success and performance off the court is having a direct correlation to Cairns’ performance on the court.

Cairns will be awarded the trophy (shared with Southern Districts) for a second consecutive year by Basketball Queensland at the annual ceremony later this month, a huge testament to the organisation and those involved.

Cairns Post: We invested big dollars into the Taipans when it was on its knees, standing shoulder to shoulder with them through their darkest hours and have provided first-class coverage of the QBL.

Fact: There are a number of claims in this editorial piece that are directed at the Taipans, that Cairns Basketball will not address, as they are not relevant.

While it is common knowledge that Cairns Basketball and the Taipans have a strong partnership that is mutually beneficial to both organisations, they are separate organisations and should not be grouped as such, nor should the individuals that service both independently.

Cairns Basketball plays a huge role in the community of Cairns (and has been for 60 years), and is proud of its connections with the public, local businesses, schools and other organisations.

And, while we are disappointed that the local newspaper cannot be part of this growing successful network, and instead had to be addressed in this manner - Cairns Basketball needs to stand up for itself, it’s members, and all the people and businesses that support it.

The Cairns Post is welcome to attend and cover our QBL games and all Cairns Post journalists and photographers , except one, will be given media access as has been to situation since 1987.