Tipping the Crocs to get this one.

It's like when a coach gets sacked, generally the week after the Players put in an inspired performance.

Think the same could happen here. Players will want to come out and "prove" that they are good enough to get the win without needing a Conklin.

Kay and Young will have their sights set on out-working. out-hustling the likes of Burston, Loughton and Worthington.

Cairns by a lot. Too much to play for.

"Players will want to come out and "prove" that they are good enough to get the win without needing a Conklin."

Except they already did that against Melbourne so they have nothing left to prove.

except for by firing last seasons MVP the Crocs management basically said no ones jobs are safe.

They only lost by 6 to the Taipans last time they met with Conklin.

And from memory paul's analysis/stats suggest they play better without Conklin.

Therefore there's a real possibility of a Crocs win.

With that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if they lost by 40 points.

Nothing would surprise me with this TVL team anymore ;)

Cairns are reeling at 4-7 and in danger of dropping off the pace in the race for 4th, after recent losses to the main contenders Illawarra and Adelaide.

I can't see Cairns losing this one.

What MACDUB said, Crocs could win or get thrashed by plenty, you just don't know. Most games this year they've been very competitive though, and I'd imagine they'll be fired up for this one.

If the Taipans are for real they get this one though, a loss and they'll probably have to go 11-5 or something similar to make playoffs.

I dont know why but my gut keeps telling me the Crocs win.

I agree with MACDUB the Crocs are like a box of chocolates. You don't what you'll get.

I say they come out hard as they lost big Saturday and the Conklin sacking will bring them together. Cairns are an older team but deep which is the opposite to the Crocs.

I was kinda hoping Cairns dropped Craig and signed Conklin. How hilarious would it be to see Conklin coming out and dropping 30 on the team that fired him in the same week.

Brian who ?

none of CNS starting 5 have scored. Bruce carrying the team with 2.

This is nutso!

Maybe the 5-blot foul count has something to do with it.

Holy wowsers

Welp, didn't see that coming. Great D from Townsville, but at the same time, Cairns don't seem to be actually running anything.

Crocs showing so far you cannot underestimate any team in this league. 3 quarters to go though.

In other news, good to see Mitch Norton with the C next to his name, well deserved.

Haven't heard any goss but I suspect the loss of Mick Downer's cool head and ability to relate to the players is a big factor.

That and losing Wilbekin.

Kay has a very unorthodox shooting motion... Nice player, though.

Oh god, blowout anon is back...

Jordair Jett this game... wow.

Jett realised he needed to score 40 per game or else he'd get the sack too.

Jett can probably quit shooting those 3s, though.

Bit of a strange HT interview from Kay - "we want to do it for Conk".

Hmmm

Fatigue hitting the Crocs this half, don't look like the same team on the defensive end.

Both teams ordinary.

Impressive 1st half from crocs. Wortho stopped the Cairns comeback. Lol

Starks starts the third on fire, Cns makes a big run a Fearne sits him. WTF?! Makes zero sense.

I like the aggression Steindl has been showing from deep this season.

Jett was great from the get go and Cairns were out of sorts

Massive credit to the Crocs. They were locked in defensively and got it done. The team who never dies. The Muggsy Bogues Crocs keep on keeping on.

Uh, no anon, I don't know that. But if you do know it, you should probably reveal who and how because a lot of folks would be interested to know.

Townsville now has more wins this season than Cairns. It's got to be more than just losing Wilbekin. What is going on up there???

What is McLeod's role at Cairns? They've been rubbish pretty much all season, since he went there. In particular, their defence has been rubbish this season - a big change from the last few seasons. I always rated the McLeod's teams' defence but it seems the opposite has happened in Cairns.

I loved the Shane Heal/Jordair Jett interview "A lot of people, including me, wondered if they sacked the wrong import."

Right to his face LOL.

Said it before, Fearne is the most over-rated coach in the league. Always pointing the finger at everyone but himself. He coached a terrible game tonight - had no answers.
He's done some good things in Cairns behind the scenes and in a development role - that's where he should be used. This franchise won't win a title with him as head coach.

He's highly respected by opponents for how well prepared his teams are. I regularly get comments in interviews about how tough it is to throw them out of their stuff, although the Crocs gave them a good heave tonight!

What an interesting league we have, each team can look very ordinary and yet all can be very impressive.

In both games today the losing coach should have done a Joey Wright and explode and get a tech foul and try and turn the game back in their favour but unfortunately Fearne and Gleeson will look back and wonder why they didn't... It's hard to work out who was worse.
Wildcats played well offensively in the first half but dreadful defensively and where was the evening up of the foul count? Almost felt like both coaches didn't care enough

Aside from glimpses from Craig and Starks, cairns looked old to me last night. Crocs we aggressive defensively and moved the ball well on offense, but cairns just looked a step off the pace.

Their veterans haven't delivered Imo, Trigger and Loughton have been almost invisible this year, Worthington a bit down on previous years, weigh underwhelming as usual and burston has been solid enough but did nothing last night.

At some point too many veterans starts to become a liability, I wonder if cairns need a bit of a clean out next year.

"Wildcats played well offensively in the first half but dreadful defensively and where was the evening up of the foul count?"

Foul count in that game was 23-20 and free throws were 25-26, so it obviously took place!

Anonymous making claims about refs and Taipans betting on the game might want to lawyer up.

On the game, has Wortho thrown off Loughton and Tragardh? Does the team even consistently go to Tragardh like Adelaide go to Johnson and Illawarra to Ogilvy?

The idea that players and refs are betting on and throwing games is ludicrous. If you watched last night's games, it just doesn't stack up at all - Townsville played well and Cairns played poorly. It's not like the refs even had a chance to influence anything!!

Isaac, interesting point re. Wortho. I think Loughton has just really fallen away moreso than Wortho having any impact. Trigger has always come off the bench. That said, his minutes seem to chop and change game to game so maybe that's where the Wortho factor comes in. But Wortho and Burston have been the best in Cns frontcourt this season.

I've been gambling on snooch saying 'Fearne is overrated', I've just put a down payment on a golden toilet......

Haha get back to me when Fearne wins a championship

#SnoochBingo JACKPOT!

Loughton has been ordinary this season no question. Wortho started well but has looked sluggish of late. I'm guessing Trigger is still a little hampered by his injury, he's not playing too bad but is getting few minutes.

If the Crocs fold, I'd like to see Taipans scooping back some of their young talent like Kay and Steindl to replace some of their veterans.

Anon, merry christmas. I hope you grow some balls so you can stop posting as an anon in the new year:)

Sting, Kay's got that sneaky range as well. He'll develop into a quality stretch NBL 4.

Exactly. Shows a lot about Cairns that they didn't win.

I can handle them not winning the crocs are so up and down but they didn't compete, amazing to see.