Woweeee

Surely Joey Wright is the man!

The Wright man for sure

Where's Joey at now? I know he stayed in Adelaide for the last two years of his contract but that expired end of last season, so I assume he's not still here?

Isn't McKinnon the Gm? A bit of an odd situation just declaring yourself coach. What would the assistants think of that?

Duncan the scapegoat for an extremely flawed roster.

You're not going to get very far when your start players like Cadee & Krebs. And unfortunately Baynes is a shadow of his old self.

Zodiac, I think he lives in Adelaide still.

Would just be the perfect narrative to return to Brisbane and also be good for the league.

Sorry to post three times separately instead of once but was a bit trigger happy on my thoughts.

Isn't McKinnon the Gm?

Not sure Wright will come back to Brissy. Sobey butted heads with him in Adelaide. So I dare say the club will prefer to please their marquee player, especially seeming he was butting heads with JD as well.

Zodiac, I think he lives in Adelaide still.

Would just be the perfect narrative to return to Brisbane and also be good for the league.

No one is hiring Joey

Sobey butted heads with him in Adelaide.

Joey is still in Adelaide.

Master Chief, are you aware of the history between Joey and Sobey? It might be the perfect narrative for MMA, but possibly not recommended for the NBL.

Interpreter, forgotten about it yes.

No suprise honestly. He was a terrible coach. They should be on Gleesons phone seeing if he has any desire of returning next season no matter how minuscule it might be.If not see if Beck or even Lemanis

I meant bevo

That new 3 year deal they gave Sobey is going to be a millstone around their necks.

His demeanour was quite poor.

Henare, Cameron or Flavell nz
Beveridge, Lemanis or Downer aus
Assistants?

Nba based
Caporn, Nielsen, Gleeson, Cotter

as predicted and yes he was a very average coach. The people responsible for appointing him should really stand down as well.

Mackinnon has named himself GM? Really? What a f***ing laugh. Fitting though as he's responsible for the shithouse roster construction.

When the Bullets continue to perform poorly, does Mackinnon get the boot as GM? I really really liked the dude as a player and post-retirement when he was trying to earn a crust at Crust, but his short tenure thus far in an office role at Brisbane has been plain terrible.

Sidenote: Sammy stepping in as HC shows how weak the current assistants are and underlines how broken the club is. I was hoping for pleasant things with Baynes on board, but the shit show has continued.

Baynes been ok, Sobey been terrible, when Cadee is your main player it was always going to be tough. Brisbane were in every game and just collapsed in most. The roster was not balanced, your two marquee players giving bare minimum. I'm not surprised, actually thought it might have happened earlier.
Can he coach ? Who really knows, wasn’t given the ideal situation. Might join his mate Weaver in France.

Aaron Fearne is the guy I'd be looking at, really impressed what he built in Cairns, it was similar to what Gleeson built in Perth without the budget.

Fearne’s better than half the current NBL coaches!

Joey's still running a basketball academy, charging a lot and having without doubt the worst uniforms in the history of sport, looks like a drop sheet from an epileptic painter.
Can time erase the memories of his appalling group chat statements? Dare say he could patch up his relationship with Sobey, but the PR about those comments are in the Kyrie Irving mould. And Froling was certainly another victim.
Could Mike Kelly be an option? Maybe Rojo can be released from his Rockets commitment.
Certainly strange to see McKinnon getting the green light before the assistants, perhaps they didn't want the poisoned chalice or powers that be reckoned Sam made this monster, fix it or you're out.

Sam Mackinnon is interim coach.

No thanks to Fearne. Overachieved for sure, but got politely moved on from Cairns because his system was boring as f*** meaning it was difficult to recruit/retain good players.

Not sure if you've noticed but Cairns has always struggled to recruit/retain players. It’s Budget related, not Fearne related.

Yeah, obvious to all Cairns has always had a small budget. No shocker though that despite remaining on a tight leash, they started attracting better players when Fearne left.

Fearne was the king of recruiting college Aussies though

and of the bi/tri-accent, some of his interviews and timeouts were an interesting listen.

Who are these better players who have signed in Cairns since Fearne left?

Fearne had some great imports that would rival anyone who's signed with the Taipans since and his locals were tough and well drilled.
They were pretty unlucky to lose 2x finals series against a couple of very good Breakers teams with that Ebekwe fade away on the buzzer being a heartbreaker

I don't think they were unlucky in 2011, they were clearly outclassed. Everyone knew the Perth-NZ semi was the real grand final that year.

With the benefit of hindsight, Adelaide are probably happy Ronnie Biggs left before his train robbing ways became notoriously evident.

Brisbane needs the fat Controller to take control if the railway.

Things were trending poorly for Fearne, the last two years of imports were downright stinkers.

Wilbekin, Craig
Starks, Craig
Trice, Edwin, Egwu
Smith, Evans, Egwu

Once he moves on and a more open system became available, more exciting imports come on board. No surprise.

Trimble, Newbill, Hall
Oliver, Machado, Newbill
McCall, Zimmerman, Machado
Hogg, Scott, McCall

Local contingent. Fearne squeezed every drop of juice out the dads army contingent of Loughton, Wortho and Tragardh. Gliddon performed well in his system. Kelly didn't recruit as good a local group, Forde’s equaling it and charting to be better.

He'd better start playing Kuol the time he deserves ahead of McCall or he’ll be gone, a fair few sides would have him on their roster.
Monday will see if taipans are in it, hopefully Cook plays.

"Once he moves on and a more open system became available, more exciting imports come on board."

I suspect this is parody. Wilbekin and Craig have gone onto excellent careers in the Euroleague and NBA, while Trice has gone onto a good career in Europe too. Given the budget Fearne was operating on he found some import jewels.

Cherry picking, more duds than studs, which you neglect to mention :) But if you want to talk about those three:

Wilbekin was solid, understandably went on to Europe.

Trice left after one season to Brisbane, performed better.

Craig was played from the bench, many felt under-utilised due to 'system ‘. Went to Brisbane, used more and performed far better.

Not saying Fearne wasn't good for Cairns. Just a structured deliberate low-scoring system, which made going to Cairns not as attractive as other destinations be it NBL or elsewhere, regardless of pay being offered.

Mighty Mouse is spot on, Trice and Craig went on to play NBA, Wilbekin is NBA level, the fact Fearne found these diamonds on a shoe string budget is impressive.

At the time, Loughton was a massive signing, gave the team some relevance, Jawai's signing was a big deal, Wortho was a strong signing.

Which locals have signed there since? Majok? Pinder? Kuol? Non of these guys started at their previous club, effectively castaways, Forde has done well developing and giving opportunities but they weren’t big time signings, they’ve actually lost more talent since Fearne left, Mccarron, Glyddon, Weeks etc.

So who exactly is the big names Cairns have signed since Fearne?

Put Fearne in charge of this years Perth team and they’d be second on the ladder, they’d play defence, get scores out of the offence and have Cotton to bail out late in shot clock!

Fearne is a poor man’s version of Gleeson!

Wilbekin has been great. Trice has played 2 games of NBA, and who knows where Torrey would be if he hadn't freed himself of Cairns shackles (remember he was playing QBL when he got the callup to Summer League). Let's not all rush to give Fearne a slap on the back over those whole three players. Still not hearing anyone defend the stinkers he signed.

Loughton was a good local signing. Jawai wasn't a big deal. He'd been disappointing the previous season in Perth, Cairns got him in good part because a local indig group subsidised his pay. Wortho whilst serviceable was nowhere near his peak and on his last legs, managing two seasons before retiring.

Fearne leaves, exciting import trio of Newbill, Machado and Oliver immediately comes in. Kelly gets locals Deng and Noi who are at least at the level Jawai and Wortho were at the Snakes if you want to discuss semantics. Much of the same following season for Kelly, losing Newbill and picking up King. Didn't go well for him then.

Forde comes in, gets McCall, Zimmerman and keeps Machado. Locals Pinder and Kuol. Forde kills it this season keeping import McCall, signs imports Hogg and Scott, adds Waardenburg to local contingent.

Impartially looking at who's been attracted to Cairns, the last four seasons at Cairns have been better than the last few Fearne was in charge of.

. Kelly gets locals Deng and Noi who are at least at the level Jawai and Wortho

Lmao, both have never got near the quality of Jawai or Wortho.

Agree Dunkman, let's see how they stack up and what they have contributed n another 10 years. Re Fearne guess haters going to hate like it or not Fearne got it done over multiple years with multiple players. History shows, players that have played well in Cairns do leave. All that does is confirm they are a budget club that has worked out how to get the best out of their players, only to be outbid by those with bigger budgets

Remember the year Cairns made the GF and the following year Melbourne signed them all???

IIRC Ubaka, Dorsey and Dillon!


It's a matter of years before Pinder takes a bag of cash and goes to Perth, Kuol takes a bag of cash and ends up in Sydney, and Hogg takes a bag of cash and ends up at United!

It’s funny when someone makes a stupid comment and then digs their heals in, it very quickly goes from stupid comment to stupid person.

Sorry Ben, you were saying he didn't recruit quality imports, where on a tight budget he picked up some gems.

Not a Fearne hater, gave him his due, just stating facts some are unable to accept and retort upon sensibly :)

People have misconceptions about how Jawai and Wortho actually performed in Cairns, probably due to how they were perceived from previous stops - National Team, club, whatever. Let's take a look for those who scoffed at my comparison.

Wortho 2 seasons - 10.6 pts | 4.8 reb | 3.1 ast

Jawai played 6 seasons returning from Perth. 8 pts | 3.6 reb | 1.1 ast. Or if you take his two best seasons, 10.4 pts | 4.7 reb | 1.5 ast.

Majok Deng 4 seasons so far. 11.9 pts | 4.3 reb | 1 ast. Or two best seasons of 13.3 pts | 4.5 ast | 1.2 ast.

Kouat Noi 3 seasons. 9.6 pts | 5.1 reb | 1 ast. Two best seasons 10.2 pts | 5.3 reb | 1 ast.

**ranked**
Deng (best 2) - 13.3 | 4.5 | 1.2
Wortho (average) - 10.6 | 4.8 | 3.1
Deng (average) - 11.9 | 4.3 | 1
Jawai (best 2) - 10.4 | 4.7 | 1.5
Noi (best 2) - 10.2 | 5.3 | 1
Noi (average) - 9.6 | 5.1 | 1
Jawai (average) - 8 | 3.6 | 1.1

Seems Deng and Noi are near the quality of Wortho and Jawai after all.

I can't see anywhere in this thread where I've said Fearne didn't recruit quality imports. Just more duds than studs if you're looking at the last four seasons.

Joey wright not interested in the job but Judd flavell could be, Brisbane did ask questions about Wiley and nothing came from it. Clearly having to pay for top end player like Baynes and Tyler Johnson not to mention sobey and now two coaches they don't have the money for Wiley or any import for that matter

I'll stick with wortho and Jawai, stats only prove so much. If Noi or Deng were as good as you say forde would have played Noi more and Deng is now a bench player. Obviously you only look at offence, neither Noi or Deng play good D.

Right Ben let's start the education. You talk about cherry picking and do exactly that.
After the Cairns Taipans entered into finanical recivership in 2010, they began looking for a young coach who would help rebuild the team (and come in at a cheap price tag), enter Aaron Fearne. Fearne, who had been an assistant with the team for seven seasons (2011-08) was hired as a stop gap solution during dire financial times but as a result of his success, went on to coach the squad for nine seasons. He coached 264 games during his time in Cairns, guiding them to three appearances in the NBL playoffs.

In 2011, he led the team to an appearance in the NBL Finals. In 2015, he coached the Taipans to a record 21 wins and another appearance in the league finals while garnering NBL Coach of the Year honours.

Ben your initial comment was about recruiting not performance.

Exactly Yup.

Joey Wright ain't coaching anyone ever again!

Wortho had already mentally retired well before signing for Cairns.

McKinnon would not bring Wright back as a lot would remember Joey had an altercation with Sam in the tunnel at training one day when Brisbane actually won athe title.

So between McKinnon and Sobey both have fisty cuffs with Joey doubt very much he would be on their radar.

McKinnon put the team together let hm go down the gurgler as well.

Not sure if you've noticed but Cairns has always struggled to recruit/retain players. It's Budget related, not Fearne related.

Yeah, obvious to all Cairns has always had a small budget. No shocker though that despite remaining on a tight leash, they started attracting better players when Fearne left.

*imports

Funnily enough I just came across this old article:

Former Bullets captain Sam Mackinnon says he wouldn't pass up a chance to coach when Brisbane returns to the NBL

The Courier Mail
October 3, 2014

[It's a matter of years before Pinder takes a bag of cash and goes to Perth, Kuol takes a bag of cash and ends up in Sydney, and Hogg takes a bag of cash and ends up at United! ]

Called Pinder to Cats back in November!