Smart signing - Jervis and Craig balance Kickert's weaknesses.

That's good looking balanced front court! Petrie, Kickert, Jervis, Young and now Craig! Plenty of grunt, scoring, rebounding and rim protection.

Jervis, Kickert and Craig make a very synergistic and powerful combination, hard to see a better one on paper.

Boom Boom Boom, Boom go the Bullets

"No decent import would like that"

Lots of decent imports come off the bench around the world. It's not really whether you start but the minutes you play and the impact you have.

In the case of Craig, who was more likely to give the team some spark off the bench, Torrey or Weigh? And who would you prefer to have alongside Bruce to provide some punch?

Weigh was a good offset for the starters because he was happy to stand in the corner, Craig was more valuable off the bench. Of course Craig can start too, Fearne just thought the combos worked better that particular way.

With Torrey Craig looking like signing with Brisbane , must be a slap in the face for Cairns, considering he told them he wasn't going to return to Cairns due to pursuing a contract in Europe , but then entertains contract talks with Brisbane , maybe he did'nt want to return to Cairns, were they that devvo to have lost him? or not really concerned?

It Happens people go back on their word. Cattalini Screwed Perth like that. Cj Bruton did the same ...

Funnily enough, of the past 18 NBL grand final teams only six have had two imports starting, so amongst successful teams it's pretty common.

He left Cairns because he was sick of being on the bench, GUARANTEED.

Well you'd be wrong Thunder Jam, it's all about the $$$$. and good on him, gotta make that cheddar while you can.

So at this stage we're looking at something like:

Jervis/Petrie
Kickert/Young
Craig/ ??
?? / ??
Gibson/Bruce

Kingpodge - A big factor in Craig not returning was the coach. It may well be that the Taipans wouldn't have been able to retain him anyway, given the dollars on offer elsewhere, but Craig had made his mind up at the half way mark of the season. Even though Craig played exceptionally well when Fearne had to put him in the starting side from New Year onwards - due to Weigh being injured - Fearne still continued to take a hard nosed approach with him. Fearne did not use Craig well in the first half of the season - IMO - and he treats the players badly at times. I can understand Craig not wanting to return.

Twinkle that differs from the reality of the situation that I'm well aware of.

Craig came back for a 2nd season under Fearne, if there was an issue there he wouldn't have and his role was well defined in a unit that was mostly the same. That narrative just doesn't hold water.

Not sure if you have spoken to many players, or if you've making your judgement based on looking at the sidelines.

I'll say this, I'm not sure if I've ever 100% agreed with any coach i ever had... they always told me to stop shooting, I though i should keep doing it... more....

Twinkle 1 - Podge 0

Thunder Jam - Dunnigan will sign with Cairns, guaranteed!

Anon - excellent point.

KingPodge, can you comment on this?: Torrey Craig came back to the Taipans with a treatable case of post-traumatic (NZ) MVP syndrome, contested the coaching objectives and his role in the line-up, and was generally miserable for much of the season.
The obverse was that Fearne whinged at him even more.

Looks like he averaged 12 points coming off the bench , last season. While the starter averaged 8 points.

greybuoy; nope. Great team guy, trained hard and worked with the coaching team. Never saw or heard any evidence to the contrary.

Will be great to see how the Brissy roster ends up and how all their pieces fit together.

So was he really going to play in Europe and the Brisbane thing came out of the blue?

"Your forgetting to add the imports coming off the bench for those teams were basically duds or low budget types."

Did you do much research into that comment? We're talking about guys like Dave Thomas, Dontaye Draper, Kevin Braswell, Charles Jackson and Donta Smith.

One who doesn't count, because he started in the GF, is Ekene Ibekwe, but he came off the bench initially and moved into the starting line-up when Pledger's foot injury went downhill. I don't think he was a dud or low budget type either.

Didn't CJ Bruton say he was going to Europe before winding up in Brisbane too?
Maybe he took CJ's advice and used the same move

Hakkim Warrick also came off the bench last season.

And he was not on 2 sausage rolls and a tin of coke per game...

He also should've been starting, especially once Majok fell off the Earth the 2nd half of the season.

Cj Bruton went back on his word with the Kings and the Wildcats. To be fair he had no legal obligation so he could what he thought what was the best possible destination for him and his family.

"Jervis/Petrie
Kickert/Young
Craig/ ??
?? / ??
Gibson/Bruce"


The more I look at that team, the less scary it appears. Not as scary/talented as initially thought.

Craig is a stud.

But Jervis is stepping up to a starting position, Kickert has known defensive issues and Gibson is coming off a fairly average season.