To be fair to the guy, he's put his body through the ringer for the past few years and is coming off of major reconstructive surgery on his shoulder. Let him take it easy for a while if he wants to, it's not like he has jump into a new career immediately. I still think he has the makings of a good coach at some point in the future, but not surprising that he's still finding his feet, if indeed this is what he sees himself doing from now on.

"I see him walking around in Cairns looking very lost." - most people say the same thing about me... i never remember where i've parked my car.

I love your ability to deflect with humour, Podge. Wish I had that skill.

I would've thought he'd be a shoo-in to take a Taipans coaching role, is that not going to happen?

Anyone bagging Wortho as a player in the last couple years is way off the mark, so to speak. Since he became a Taipans he's probably been our best player

"I have been a supporter of Cairns Basketball for a long time and he needs to go. He was a disappointment for the Taipans last season and now a disappointment for Cairns Basketball

Character???????"

If you're such a big supporter of Cairns basketball you know that he'll almost certainly be down at the fishtank with his kids if the Marlins manage a home semi final, so I dare you to wander over and say all of this to his face.

Thought not.

Hey #540,

And people wonder why I'm a disgruntled Taipans fan!

You haven't made a single cogent argument yet. What exactly are you trying to say? That he hasn't in your eyes done anything interesting post-playing career yet? That he wasn't the player that some people think he was? That he hasn't been a good coach for the dolphins this season? All of the above? I can't really understand what the point of your post is.

The OP sounds like someone who's got the shits when Wortho took the last hot chips in the bay marie last Friday night....

I think he's done a solid job with the Dolphins given he's a 2nd year coach. If not for the WQBL's strange finals qualification system they would have made the finals last season. Also, I haven't heard any complaints from the Dolphins i know.

What is he meant to have done? Dredged the inlet? Built Aquis? Cured cancer? Inject himself into the Syrian conflict as a self styled one man war machine hellbent on punishing evil do'ers?

I wonder if he's looking lost around town because he's trying to evade the stalker following him around assessing his character......................

OP is a flog

Also, Wortho average 10,5,3 last season with 1 shoulder... based on a per minute bases he was producing enough to put him in the top 5 forwards in the league.

there was about 1 1/2 working shoulders between Wortho and Jawai for the last qtr of the season, but we still made the semis.

Don't be so salty TF, it's bad for your arteries.

I can't think of a guy that would care less about what others think of him.

"What is he meant to have done? Dredged the inlet? Built Aquis?"

SO Cairns :-)

They finished 2nd last season despite the experts having them as spooners or 2nd last.

They would likely have made the GF had it not been for a bad call on Gliddon in Perth. I think they would have played NZ instead of Perth.

Can you explain why one would be disgruntled with such an overachieving team?

Last half-dozen years we've made the playoffs twice. 2014/15 was the only year in club history that we've been consistently elite.

Last year we shit the bed when it really mattered and our prominent players only seem to turn up when they want to.

The captain plays so timidly. The one guy you're meant to look for for inspiration and leadership is the single most inconsistent on the team.

Coach's decisions make you scratch your head a fair bit.

Players always seem to get better once they switch clubs, it's uncanny.

still the best results per $ spend anywhere south of Oakland :)

Dollars isn't a legitimate excuse, I've said that plenty. Look at Melbourne/Sydney in recent years.

Podge,

Point blank, are you happy with our aggregate performance over the past six seasons?

dollars is when you can't retain talent, buy high priced imports, or replace imports mid season. Dont forget Perth had their names on the wooden spoon before they got their chequebooks out for Cotton. Speaking of Perth, they outbid us on Johnson and we replaced him with Fu. Now yes Perth ended up getting rid of him, but at least he could hit the broadside of a barn door.

Happiness isn't black and white, i'm not happy we haven't won a final, but i'm bloody happy that we've gotten there more than teams spending 3 times as much. 3 post season appearances in 7 years, a .500 win rate, club's books are still in the black and we've got a team while others don't :). Doesn't mean i'm always happy with what the club does, or that I don't make mention of my criticisms to those who walk the halls of power. But overall, i'm pretty content.

What they've achieved in the past 8 years is far more than what they achieved when we had a rich sugar daddy throwing cash around like crazy. Money doesn't win you chips, but bringing in Bryce Cotton when your 7-9 helps - conversely, as the kings proved, bringing in former NBA players past their prime for big $$'s doesn't...

I'm just happy to be arguing with people about basketball instead of politics and religion :) Worst part of the 21-7 season was not arguing with anyone for a full 8 months!

This soft cap has obviously increased big teams' buying power, but it's been in place for just one season. Prior to that, how much less were we actually spending relative to other teams?

Well i know for a fact we've never come close to the cap and from memory it's gone from about 60% to 80% in the past 7 years. 15 and 16 were 80% or 85% (inc spend the cap sponsors). So they'd spend roughly $800,000, whereas the league average last season was rumoured to be about 1.5 (with a couple spending over 2..) - rumours, but probable when you look at some of the rosters.

Can't find the article, but Cairns Post or ABC ran something last year that broke down the cap numbers.

One day the NBL might be able to navigate the privacy issues and publish cap spends/salaries. At least that way we'd be able to quantify exactly how big Goliath is, and how much David is punching above his weight.

Dollars isn't a legitimate excuse, I've said that plenty. Look at Melbourne/Sydney in recent years.

Kobe, I'd say you're right. But how about Illawarra's success over the past few seasons, apparently they don't spend big either

Ah yeah, knew I was missing something.

I remember Randle had a niggle coming into the first game of the home-and-home so played reduced minutes. From memory they ran most of the last quarter minus DJ, Sobey, Randle and Creek. They actually acquitted themselves really well that night.

So that could have been, what, one playoff appearance in the last six years.

another Anon zinger.......... *yawn*

Manu if we're speaking hypothetical - we sign Johnson, he doesn't hit that shot, we beat Perth in Perth and they don't make the finals and we have an import more consistent than Fu and less unhinged than the Ball Tosser.

Of course if Perth didn't sign him they could have sign someone better, or worse, or Ray Allen? Anything is possible in a hypothetical universe.

11/12 we finished 15-13 with a new roster and lost 5 games by less than 5 points - it could have been 4 from 7.

If i had Rick's portal gun i'd try and find the universe where we went 7 from 7 and Dewy Michaels was mayor.

Season 3 just crept up on me man. Had a look at imdb earlier this morning after seeing some R&M stuff on my news feed.

Yeah, be those hypotheticals as they may, I have wanted more from us as a team over recent years. I've said all I want to, don't care enough to go further... although last thing I will say is that I actually liked Fu. If only Fearne sicced him on elite ball handlers, he would've been a beast. Fearne sapped his confidence imo.

Anyway, cheers to another season of, 'well wait a second... if we win the next three in a row we'll be a good chance of making the playoffs after how mediocre our season has gone.'

One last... pretty sure Fearne would be killed Johnson's confidence anyway. Seemed like a timid, easily defeated kinda personality. Fearne would've torn the flesh off his bones pretty early on in the piece.

i'm just about to sit down and watch the first couple of episodes - win, lose or draw, i've still got the recipe for that McDonalds szechuan sauce.

At least we'll always agree that R&M is awesome.

Yeah got the afternoon set myself...

ATP Los Cabos final rn
Rick and Morty
NRL
Orphan Black

That should do me

Trigger Fan, are you one of these 'stat sheets means everything' fans? Can you not see momentum swings?...why they happen?...who instigates them?

Wortho, whether you like the guy or not, has been the only player with any kind of 'meaningful presence' on that team for quite a while.

There are an increasing amount of 'Trigger Fans' out there these days....I seriously believe stat sheets are ruining our game!!

I blame financial dependence for this 'stat sheet ignorance'.

People are too busy making money so they can eat to think critically about the sport they follow, so they look at box scores and make sweeping assumptions from a few basic numbers.

Capitalism, man

Wortho is a retired NBL player. The fact that people still feel a need to discuss what he's up to is testimony to the lasting impact he made on Australian basketball.

He was one of the most polarising players of his era, matched only by Redhage as the player you most loved to hate - until he was on your team then you saw the value he brought every single day to his team, the basketball community and the greater region he was a part of.

I love seeing him around the fishtank at Cairns, passing on his knowledge to the next generation, whether it be the U12s or the Cairns Dolphins or the Taipans.

The only alteration I would make to Wilson Sting's post is "Wortho is a retired NBL player who is still rehabbing after surgery".

Great news for Mark! Would be a fantastic addition to the college system.