If Cairns drop this I struggle to see where their next win is coming from.

Melbourne Boy you do realise that Perth are playing Sydney this round?

"Cairns will be fired the F up tonight to get a rare win, I think they will pull off the upset"

@Mock It won't be an upset according to Sportsbet. They've installed Cairns at $1.60 favourites over the Hawks at $2.35.

Cairns don't have any defenders, nothing’s changed over the FIBA break. Hall still can’t shoot.
Crowd not looking to full either.

Trimble 5 from 20, 19 points and can't defend a bar stool. Punters saying he’s an mvp are kidding themselves, Ware and Cotton win these games for their team.

Yes it's time for a few marlins, Jurlina is a very good defender.

As a Taipans supporter I have to ask what direction are the board taking us?

This is a rudderless team with no direction, very little coaching and next to nil accountability.

I have waited and accepted the excuses to a degree. New Coach and New team (board decisions) but we are 10 games in and I can only see deterioration rather than improvements. Hell ever some fight would be enough but most of the roster either doesn't care enough or would rather argue with the officials rather than battle on the court.

They say teams take on the persona of their coaches to a degree. Give me the junk yard dog Fearne Taipans that would fight and claw for every point over this Mr Positive nice guy team that folds at the first sign of adversity.

Please please at least before the season is out, Mike Kelly, please load up on your team for their defensive accountability (Trimble every possession). Make them have to take the mics out of your timeout, you are confusing positive with passive. Bring back the passion.

Trimble is an exciting offensive player but without his few moments of brilliance it is not even the exciting up and down brand of basketball we were promised as a part of getting rid of Fearne. At least then we won at home. What do we have now?

So again, what is the direction this board is taking our team? And who are we supposedly developing around as the board suggests?

^^^^
On the money 134, Trimble will be gone next season as well to who ever pays more, and not nba quality as commentary keep telling us. Get some defence going.

This is not a Fearne v Kelly situation in my opinion. Don't fall into the trap of making it that. This was coming either way! The only difference if Fearne was coaching would be he would be subbing everyone in and out every 2 minutes for not playing defence, as well as Melo Trimble splitting 20 minutes court time with Jarrod Kenny to make a statement. The 1-9 record would be the same. Don't compare Fearne teams of Wilson, Rhychart, Loughton, Tragardh, Wilbiken, Burston, Craig, McCarron, Gliddon etc to this team. This may be the worst assembled roster in league history. Or certainly top 5. This is like the old Singapore Slingers in their last season. This was what was available to spend after previous year's rosters and management costs. Kelly is the easy target but this team is poorly constructed and has no leadership. Fearne dancing around the sidelines wouldn't help. You're on the right track asking the board questions, you've just asked the wrong question.

Remember Kelly found out he was coach 2 - 3 days before free agency began. Hard to recruit with that and a limited budget.

You people are confusing 2 seperate issues.

1) All the excuses you are offering for Kelly are 100% on the board.

2) The lack of improvement, the lack of desire, the lack of accountability are 100% on Kelly.

Even the competitive games you offer as hope, go and watch them again. Was it due to great coaching and an improving hungry team or was it due to the individual brilliance of some imports we are going to never see again come seasons end.

And yes Troy Stone has made it a Fearne vs Kelly thing when his rhetoric in the paper is about a "change in direction", “more entertaining style of play” and “Kelly being a positive guy”. All thinly veiled attempts to paint him as the opposite of Fearne.

As said previously in certain situations positivity is merely passiveness. Those people defending Kelly can I ask are you truly happy with the effort and desire our team shows? Are you happy to sit on the sidelines and clap and cheer mediocrity?

Losing Gliddon and McCarron is again on the board as their agent packaged them with Fearne. Were things perfect with Fearne, not at all. But looking at what we have, which most in the know saw coming, I would take Fearne with a different GM and Board rather than the other way around.

Finally if we are about development as the board suggests then why for the first time since I can remember is there no junior academy? Should the Taipans DEVELOPMENT Academy not be running by this stage of the season or have I missed something?

Academy did run just as you said different coach.

While I thought the academy did a reasonable job in developing high end talent, few NBA players, few NBL players. The role it played in developing young players in the local cairns community was huge being a community club and all.

Hopefully I am wrong and it will still go ahead just maybe out of NBL season for the first time?