Knew this would happen.

No options overseas or the taipans can now pay him with private ownership?

I was hoping this would happen! Now to get Keanu Pinder back from the Wildcats!

If the Taipans could get Mills and Pinder that's a pretty good combo.

He should try bring in Mackinnon as an assistant, congratulations to him but in all fairness his record wasn't better than Kelly before him.

Well well well nice to see they took my advice! ;)

Finally, now they can get to work filling out the roster.
Pinder and Mills would be an absolute dream for them to get. Will depend if Pinder wants to return to somewhere he was comfortable and not pursue overseas gigs. He looked pretty miserable with Rillie, maybe a one year deal to recharge his batteries.
If LK has been helping other teams, he should be doing everything to get Mills to Cairns. Maybe they could do a Jawai deal to boost things. Suddenly they'd have a few very good locals, add some decent imports and they'll be looking very good.
And throw in a next star on top, but they'll have to get a move on unless this has been on the backburner and just waiting to be signed off on.
Had two Cinderella champions the last 2 years, can the snakes make it a third?

Any updates on the potential new owners? I assume Forde has been re-hired on their say so.

Don't call it a comeback.

Knew this would happen.

I think Forde and maybe the club just thought they'd hit a bit of a plateau, but it also felt premature and unnecessary given Forde was still involved and didn't seem to have any genuinly better options.

Listening to the marketplace episode, they talked about the fact Cairns didn't even hit the salary floor last season and could not afford to bring in injury replacements.

Forde just feels right for Cairns and you know what you're getting. I'd back him.

If Forde gets to coach these Taipans with a bigger budget, they could be a team to watch

Agreed MC.

I was disappointed to see Forde finish up after last season but also thought he'd probably done all he could with the setup and constraints he had so it was maybe time to move on and give someone else a go rather than rinse and repeat for the 4th time.

If reports are to believed though, the goalposts have completely moved now and I'm definitely happy for him to go again. We need every bit of continuity we can get with the inexperience we have so far.

has this been confirmed ?
seems a bit amateur hour if so . This gives me no confidence that the supposed new owners want to change things and current management is being retained .

I agree Toppo, Forde results were no better than Kelly and yet Forde can coach but Kelly was useless.

Not 100% confirmed Troppo, but I'd suggest it would be highly unusual to fall over now with the amount of coverage it's received. Certainly it's moved beyond the whispers/chat forums stage.

And as far as I'm aware there has been no talk whatsoever regarding current management being involved in any decision making or whether they'll be retained or otherwise.

Dunkman, that's a long bow to draw. I haven't heard or seen it mentioned anywhere that Forde can coach and Kelly was useless. You've just made that up due to their records being similar at Cairns. It would be pretty fair to say other factors are involved.

Kelly had a young and hungry Cam Oliver in his first year then when he won COTY, he didn't look that great the next year when Oliver left mid-season for the NBA. Plus we've got Kelly's time as SEM coach to judge him on now too which was poor.

Forde is a strong recruiter and gets the best out of his players just if they have injuries they can't afford to pay replacement players on top of the injured ones hence the situation last season.

Now confirmed. Resigned on one-year deal.

Now confirmed. Resigned on one-year deal.

That sums it up for me as well Zodiac.

Going off wiki.

Mike Kelly
6 - 22
16 - 12
8 - 28 (36 game season)
Total - 30 wins 62 loses - 32%

Adam Forde
9 -19
18 -10
12 - 16
8 -21
Total - 47 wins 66 loses - 42%


Mike Kelly SEM - 10 wins 23 loses - 30%
Adam Forde Sydney - 19 wins l7 loses - 53%

has this been confirmed ?
seems a bit amateur hour if so . This gives me no confidence that the supposed new owners want to change things and current management is being retained .

Well said Zodiac

I doubt any new owners are local and I suspect any capital will go to LK . At the end of the season management said they were putting together a team to find the right person to take over as the new coach . Forde was on that team .
What happened ? Did the team meet this week where they were advised they could broaden their search as more funds were available to pay for a better coach and players ? Did they just happen to find Forde's resume on the pile in the middle desk ? You have to ask what changed Forde's mind and why any new ownership would not want to make this appointment and announcement themselves .
What was the application process ? `Gidday I am the guy who coached the team to the longest winning streak in NBL history , looking for a pay rise ' .

All speculation at this point Troppo. Overseas opportunities may have fallen over or not eventuated.

But I'm leaning more towards (potential) new ownership pulling some strings. If this was happening under the current regime they'd be spruiking it themselves but they have been virtually silent for months.

Forde's contract had expired, the Taipans knew they were going to try and transition from community to private ownership so the usual thing to do is allow the new owners to hire their own coach and sign what players they want, depending on roster spots left i.e. no imports signed yet.

Even though the new owners haven't been announced yet it's reasonable to assume at least in the difficult transition period of the first year the safe thing to do was re-hire Forde. They probably had to jump now before all the ownserhips stuff has been sorted because maybe Forde had another offer overseas he was keen on, who knows.

I can only assume Forde has some inside information. He wouldn't come back on the same T&C he was previously hamstrung with.

Interestingly the Cairns Post has now changed their story from "confirmed" to "reported"

As I said, good luck to Forde, I'm not convinced he’s the correct signing imo. Maybe he’s the only one who wanted it, probably more under his terms now and more coin to spend.

I'll add that Kelly was also part of the infamous ScoMo season as associate head coach.

Cairns played this well compared with a certain other club who bizarrely bedded down a poor coach to a three year deal, while the current one hadn't lapsed yet, before new ownership stepped in.

Appears Kerry Williams won't be staying. Could be a number of reasons why.

Because Kerry Williams has signed with Adelaide as an assistant. So has Luke Cann (Ex Bullets).

Announcement will be made official once the new ownership syndicate is finalised.

Who will be assistants, any ideas ? Surely Mackinnon would be worth a punt.