"Chasing our tails": Forde says Taipans must build resilience

While Thursday’s Round 3 fixture with the Adelaide 36ers didn’t go to plan for the Cairns Taipans, coach Adam Forde knows his team will learn from it.

During the post-game press conference, following their 31-point loss to Adelaide, Forde outlined what went wrong for his Taipans.

“We were chasing our tails from the start,” Forde said.

“Anytime we missed as rotation, they (the 36ers) scored out of it, if we turned the ball over, they scored out of it, if we gave up the offensive rebound, they scored out of it.

“Every time there was a subtle error, they seemed to capitalise - so full credit to them.

“The reality is, we have to be more of a half-court team this year - being selective with our shots and getting through some actions.

“When we tried to get into this running race with Adelaide, they obviously capitlised on it and we were on the poor end of it.

“We also need to cut out those unforced errors, because they do chip away at the group, so it’s important we continue to build that mental resilience.

“It’s glaring to see what we did wrong thought and we need to fix, which we will do at training.”

Forde, who reminded his team during the game they can’t use too much energy on worrying about the officials, wasn’t making excuses but explained the loss could have been a result of their busy recent schedule.

“A response from week one was warranted [by the players], but in this instance, it’s been a big week, where we’ve played more games in the past seven days than some have played all season, so there’s an element of fatigue,” Forde said.

"For example, Jack [McVeigh] has played close to 100 minutes the past week, including putting his heart and soul into those last two [wins over Brisbane and Sydney] and doing everything he could in this game.

“We now have eight days until Perth, which is great and needed.”