JVG: "Cairns do not lose at home, they are the only team to lose at home just once this year."
They are also the only team to have only played four home games this year.

I doubt Fearne would even raise an eyebrow to this story.

Cairns to get this in a close one at home.

Following on from my dismissal of JVG's comments about "Fearny Tales", I do think the Snakes will do a good job of looking after their home court tonight.

Taipans by 9.

Oh JVG.......

I got a bad feeling Trice is going to hurt us tonight.

Maybe I'm just a totally biased Kings fan, but those fouls called on Whittington/Powell/Tommy inside looked pretty darn soft on the replay. The offensive foul on Powell and Prewster's reach were dumb, but the others? Not so sure.

Jawai just Maric'ed Lisch around the neck there, obviously a no-call.

What are Sydney planning on doing with the 3rd import spot? Are they replacing Blake? Or just riding the season out with who they have?

I don't think there's any indication what they're going to do, but I imagine it won't be any thing huge, just a backup PG/SG who won't bring all the attention that a Blake signing did.

Perth would have loved to have had 2016/2017 Jawai

Significant upgrade on 2015/2016 Jawai

15/16 Jawai was still enough for a title, but yeah I'm pleased to see how he has improved since

Fearne is a big part of "15/16" Jawai, IMO.

Don't see Kings taking this one, we just don't have any mojo up in North QLD it seems. We've looked shaky ever since the first couple of minutes and aren't getting enough back-to-back stops to do more than drag ourselves back to 4 or 6 points before we turn it over or post up Tommy.

I think we've been a bit hard done by on the foul calls, but you have to give credit to Cairns - Fearne has these guys playing like a well oiled machine on both ends.

^^ Fearne is a big part of "16/17" Jawai, even.

I'll take back that "hard done by" comment after that Jawai foul.....

This choke could prove a lot more costly than Maric's on Wortho.

I'm happy to get the win, but I'd be pissed off I was a Cairns fan after that Jawai foul... That totally changed the game.

Just watched the last few minutes of the game, I'm wondering why Fearne didn't sub in Edwin particularly with the Kings running 2-3 zone? I thought he hit a few clutch 3s last few games vs. Kings.

what did JVG say about the league not being fixed?.......

Edwin's got a knee issue from what i've heard.

The final quarter refereeing was a one-sided disgrace. CNS had 5 team fouls after about 2:30. The first SYD foul was called at the 8:00 mark once SYD had a 6 point lead.

I've got no real problems with the fouls being called on CNS (except for the Jawai non foul you mentioned). But SYD were playing the same and not having anything called. Cadee and Lisch were fouling on most defensive plays but seem to be the NBL's golden boys.

Fouls in 1st quarter against Kings were very soft or non-existent. Lucky to get that win.

Cairns benefited early from calls and then were on the end of some late, especially the phantom foul on Jawai.
Their missed 3s and turnovers down the stretch had a bigger impact on the result though, they just didn't work out the zone well enough.

What a disgraceful refereeing performance!! Cairns whistled out of it in the last quarter.

Still that is no surprise as the NBL only wants the big city teams in the finals!!

Wilbekin probably would've won us that game. Just saying

Only if he has a whistle

So much salt LMAO

Yeah Podge, unnecessarily salty. I'm annoyed too, but you've got to be logical. It was a nuclear meltdown dude.

The refs weren't the reason for those five turnovers and 2/10 3pt in the last quarter.

It's hard to get any sort of momentum though when the refs are blowing the whistle so much, especially once they were in the penalty.

How is that an argument? We had the ball but simply didn't make plays. We struggle against zone D, simple as that.

No one has complained about the bunch of first-half fouls and stop-start nature of the game. We were massively advantaged by that and all the calls Jawai was receiving.

You know who was good at managing an offence against any sort of D? Wilbekin.

The NBL want Cairns/Townsville Nth QLD merger, they don't even want a stand alone Cairns team. Cairns got robbed.

Cairns has a representative on the commission (Beecroft) and Garrone is on the NBL board (or was last I heard).

Not sure where this whole anti-Taipans thing is coming from. Do fans really think the NBL is directing referees to call games against Cairns so they lose?

Pass the tinfoil...

@snooch said "Cairns benefited early from calls and then were on the end of some late, especially the phantom foul on Jawai.
Their missed 3s and turnovers down the stretch had a bigger impact on the result though, they just didn't work out the zone well enough."

@Manu Fieldel said “We had the ball but simply didn't make plays. We struggle against zone D, simple as that.
No one has complained about the bunch of first-half fouls and stop-start nature of the game. We were massively advantaged by that and all the calls Jawai was receiving.”

I agree with the above comments from @snooch and @Manu Fieldel

I would add that although we got some ordinary calls in the last quarter, at least a couple of the first 4 fouls we incurred in that quarter (thus putting us into penalty from then on ) were careless in my opinion.

This was the 3rd game in a row where the Taipans have surrendered a 15+ point lead. The previous 2 games we held on largely due to big plays from Trice. I don't think we were playing as well in this game as we were in the other 2.

We have a very good and well balanced team but need to be better under pressure (particularly when we are having a lead chased down).

haha unnecessary salt? I'm shocked and appalled at the allegation.

the zone gave us issues, unless Jawai was on the court. They were doubling down on him the whole night, he doesn't get fouled out..... who knows.....

I'd say 9/10 we don't lose with Jawai there but the fact is we screwed the pooch, Podge. Unfortunate, but you've got to face facts.

I thought Fearnes coaching from the start looked a bit odd.
He was over animated/erratic very early...
And what was the subbing of 3 players at once at a very crucial time.....maybe 20 up with 1 minute to go is a better time for that??

Not his best performance.

Why are you surprised my friend? Fearne did it the previous game also,subbed in 4 bench guys & lost all momentum? Jobs for the boys in Cairns,so no change coming unfortunately!

Jobs for the boys?? wtf I mean it is a men's basketball team.... so... there's that..