No, there just aren't that many good candidates (that we know of). Nielsen is a highly-rated name and has worldwide coaching experience. Whether he is looking for a head coach job on the other side of the country is another matter.

Tragardh has state league coaching experience is a Cairns basketball icon. He might not yet have enough experience though.

Liam Flynn a lock

Would Adam Caporn be a candidate if willing? Coaches his own team at the COE and has gained experience with the men's national team these last couple of years.

Gleeson. See how he goes without Bendat's money as an experiment for my own personal amusement.

After what happened to Dennis at the Crocs (turning down Kings Head Coach position only for the club to fold a few weeks later), I don't know how prepared he would be to join Cairns from a comfortable Japan gig when they are looking shaky.

Yes, he did ok in a weakened league back then. But not a super coach as people now make him out to be, and he was sitting Homicide on the bench Fearne style.

Also, remember his time at the Tigers? Oh, you didn't mention that stin?

stint? I know why.

He made elim/semis and always lost them in the weakest period of the league. It was so weak that Homicide was a star player.

who is this fool who keeps bringing up weak period of the league as if it has anything to do with coaching?

It's a fact.

Marty clarke
Cj bruton
Anthony stewart
Corey williams
Sean miller
Lavar ball
Al westover

Al would need to change his crocodile skin shoes to snakeskin.

Who is Geordie? Damm so dumb arses here.

Gordie.

Who are the good assistants out there? Big move by Neilson to leave Spurs to come home, would he uproot them to go to small old cairns?
Then you'd have the Gordie and Joyce along with Molly.
Dennis if he wants it should be lock but dark horse could be Shannon Seebohm.
Pity the disaster that was Demopolous rules out Americans, but could a European be a left field appointment, apart from cultural their style could be conducive.

You don't think with a different hire the 'Cats don't win those three titles?

Let's use an example. Gleeson has three titles - great. Who else is in the minimum three NBL titles club? Goorjian for one. Goorjian though is a coaching genius, whereas Gleeson isn't, just because they are all in the min. three titles club doesn't mean anything. Gleeson anywhere else would have zero, and other coaches if they were in the same spot would've won also. JFC it's not that hard to understand. Look at Lemanis - wins three also right time, right place with good ownership and management and $$$. Now he is being found out. Yet not long ago people wouldn't say a word against him either. Gleeson is Lemanis v2.

Re: Gordie

He deserves another shot and has experience with the other regional club. Remember he came close to being the only coach to win a title with an import less team back in the day also.

Al Westover had two titles. Nuff said. Any joker with the backing behind him can win. paul you were close to the Tigers during that era so you will have to concede this point.

Downer
Pearlman
Dennis
Flynn
Kelly

Top 5 contenders there. Beecroft the GM is not taking anywhere near enough heat for his role in Cairns being mediocre and not being able to recruit. Fearne did an amazing job for what he had in front of him. You cant say his teams were not prepared very well for every game and under-achieved!

Fair comment about Bevo. He won 1 title in 4 seasons with the Cats.

Gleeson has 3 titles in his first 4 seasons. A fair effort in anyone's language.

what about a seabl coach stepping up? Richard Hill sure has the runs on the board from that league. taking his team from a basket case for many ears to 5 conference championships in a row and 3 of the last 4 seabl titles. also has some nbl assistant experience.

Chaz Michael Michaels: Not being able to recruit? Gliddon, Steindl, Jawai, McCarron just a few name drops there for you to deal with...

3 of those guys were straight from college (and McCarron had signed with Tsv until they fell over which meant he fell into Cairns' lap) - in the NBL you need proven, experienced pros to win. Who was the last big time, proven player they have signed? A broken Jawai? A past it Wortho? The BIG TEST is coming up now trying to hold onto McCarron and Gliddon!

Beecroft needs to step up and do his job as fastidiously and meticulously well as Fearne did his and that includes recruiting but also getting enough sponsorship dollars to spend on the team instead of scraping the barrel.

You all are underestimating the influence Downer had on the recruitment of Gliddon, Steindl & McCarron.

Don't forget he was the Head Coach of the Uni Games team both Cam & Clint played on before they were signed by Cairns.

Food for thought.

Jamie O'Loughlin, already there and has plenty of experience. Was successful at SEABL, then an assistant at Perth before coming to Cairns too!

paul if you put any current experienced coach (Joey, Fearne, Lemanis, Vickerman, Bevo) (obviously not Gaze or Henare) in Perth at the time I believe they would also win as many titles as Gleeson. I don't think that is an outrageous statement but the heat I get on here for it implies people either don't understand the point being made/are overly emotional/don't understand the structure for success Perth had in place as a club.

and to dismiss Goorjian as being bad in game early in his career when he was masterful at it during the Kings three peat strikes me as odd. you've cherry picked the earlier part of his career which he became a genius at later to discredit him? Also re: Westover nice political answer which you ended off by agreeing with me.

To get this thread back on topic I would like to see what Gleeson could do at Cairns so people would be able to contrast/compare. And yes I know he was in Tville but they had bigger budgets than the current Taipans relative to that era's cap spaces (which there is none now).

goorj was a masterful coach when he had the entire boomers team playing for him. funny that.

Jamie O'Loughlin, already there and has plenty of experience. Was successful at SEABL, then an assistant at Perth before coming to Cairns too!

Was sacked from Perth.

#876 he didn't have Boomers he just chose his own Kings players for the Boomers. Key difference.

No he had his pick of top players who flocked his way due to being Boomers coach

"paul if you put any current experienced coach (Joey, Fearne, Lemanis, Vickerman, Bevo) (obviously not Gaze or Henare) in Perth at the time I believe they would also win as many titles as Gleeson."

We have already established that Bevo didn't win as many titles as Gleeson.

That's because he didn't get his contract renewed. Keep up.

"That's because he didn't get his contract renewed. Keep up."

He had 4 seasons there with 1 title. Gleeson 3 titles in first 4 seasons. Simple maths.

I've never understood why there is always a huge wave of "please get Gordie!" cries whenever a head coaching vacancy comes up. For some reason he's seen as some sort of master coach. He had that good year with Illawarra, but that's about it from my memory. People will use that to say he is amazing at getting a lot from a small budget, but back in that year the whole league was poor.

Anon #897 he didn't get renewed as the Cats got better. You are comparing two different four year periods. Really that dumb?

Anon #898 really? His highlight was his time coaching the Razorbacks not Hawks. How long have you been following NBL?

It really is Dumb and Dumber in here!

"Anon #897 he didn't get renewed as the Cats got better. You are comparing two different four year periods. Really that dumb?"

Yes, they are two different four-year periods. It's not possible to have two head coaches at a time.

The point being made by others was that Gleeson is benefitting from coaching in a franchise with a lot of "resources" at his disposal. Someone said he needs to coach at one with less resources (such as Cairns) to prove his worth.

They continue this argument to say that any coach worth his salt would win as many titles as Gleeson did with Perth's resources. To which the counter-argument is, Beveridge coached with Perth under the same ownership & management, and got 1 title from 4 years. A very successful period no doubt, but it isn't easy to win 3 titles.

Also, I'm pretty sure that Sydney and Melbourne have spent more than Perth in recent years.

Bevo was with the Cats while still at Challenge for some of his time there when they didn't have the gameday revenue. Also lower calibre imports. Again you are comparing apples with oranges and clutching at straws. Of course we can't compare coaches because they can't be at the same time at the same club but to compare Bevo's previous stint is being naive of the differences.

and you know the budget how? "Exact pot" way to simplify things

Gleeson had better imports than Bevo which indicates more spending. Latest example how about Cotton on $600k? That indicates spend.

"You think that because the Cats changed stadium Jack changed the amount he spends on the team? Foolish."

Um yes that's exactly what he did. Filling a 13,000 seat stadium takes more money and effort than filling a 4,500 seater. And its not just on court costs - they cut costs in their final year at Challenge to make sure the first year at the new Arena was a success.

Yes they cut their staff down from 47 to 39. Plus one less asst coach so they now only have 6 Assts.

Chaz thinking 4,500 = 13,000 is a classic.

Oh and nice factoid kr.

Bevo

Sam Gruggen

"you've cherry picked the earlier part of his career which he became a genius at later to discredit him?"

I've seen so any Goorjian-coached games that I don't care to remember. I watched him struggle to figure out how to use his offensive assets in big games for many, many years. I watched him struggle with the step up to international coaching and be picked apart by oppo teams.

He certainly wasn't an in-game genius, his strengths lay in recruiting very good teams and preparing them exceptionally well.

Goorjian coached 15 seasons in Melbourne for two titles from the late 80s to early 2000s. Most years his teams had close to, if not the best resources in the league.

If we were assessing a similar coach today that would be labelled underachieving. So if we're saying Gleeson only wins titles because he has excellent resources, you have to say the same about Goorjian, but he isn't doing the winning quite as early or often as Gleeson has at the same point of their careers.

Cotton on $600K...really? Please do not speculate. If you know, then that makes us all smarter, otherwise it's just trash and gossip and we might as well close the forum now. I come here to learn stuff I did not know. If you are guessing, say so. Over time we will judge your predictions and weigh those up accordingly - like many already do to other posters (yes, I'm not brave enough to put my name to anything).

Gleeson won the title after scraping into the playoffs. Yes, Cotton gets most of the credit, but don't diminish the coach's role in making the conditions favourable. He didn't mess things up - that's a good thing!!

You should be pointing to the east coast before looking west. When was the last championship by a team from Eastern Australia? Goorjian and Westover won six out of seven to 2009 and then nothing since. But they are clearly junk!

Bevo and Gleeson weren't good coaches at Perth? They both continued the playoff streak and they both won championships. Four championships in eight years - not enough for you? Why compare? For what purpose? So what if they had different players? So what if they had good players? So what if the standard of the league was different. So what if they played in different stadiums?

Cairns coach candidates... Somehow, not much substance is being devoted to the title of the actual thread. Start a new thread if you want to argue the merits of one championship winning coach over another championship winning coach.

Without any knowledge (pure speculation here, see this is how you do it), Liam Flynn might be the choice - a first-time NBL HC (so he's cheapish which is important for Cairns), but has league experience and HC coaching experience internationally. Only challenge would be a re-tread currently coaching OS or if they really try to go cheap and use an NBL assistant coach, like Downer (Boomers stuff is important), Pearlman or Kelly. But with basketball administration (and referees)...who really knows what they are thinking?

It's great that everyone has different opinions though...life would be boring otherwise. However, opinions are just that...they are not right or wrong, just opinions.

Facts are sometimes useful too...

Facts would be useful yes, yet then you go and name Liam Flynn as a potential new Taipans head coach. Maybe go and re-read your own advice.

Anon #676127 how does it feel to be so so utterly wrong?

Rest assured Goorj won't be back anytime soon.

An article saying $600k is meaningless.

We're so sorry for providing actual sources. Where are yours? thought so.

As I said, my mention of Liam Flynn was pure speculation without any knowledge of anything. Based on reports of finances, I would GUESS they are looking at a new coach and if they can get one with knowledge of NBL and has international experience that would be preferred. That would favour Flynn and Downer, but could also include others.

In terms of Cotton's $$$, thanks. That's what I was after. I wasn't doubting the number, as I have little idea about NBL salaries other than very brief comments with a mate coaching in the league. It sounded high and unsustainable, but if teams are willing to pay that much and can still survive, maybe we can continue to attract better and better imports. It would be great for the league.

KB may be an option he's been an assistant for quite a while

"We're so sorry for providing actual sources. Where are yours? thought so."
An article stating a rumour isn't factual in any way, shape, or form.
Just another "reporter" quoting something he probably read here.