Forde Vows to Fix Taipans' Errors From Breakers Clash

The Cairns Taipans are rolling. Six straight wins, a tight victory over a fellow top two contender, up to second on the ladder. Round 15 was a good weekend for the Snakes.

After a five-point win over Illawarra on Friday the Taipans backed it up against New Zealand. The two surprise packets of NBL23 had already locked horns twice this season, and it had been the Breakers who had taken the chocolates on both occasions leading up to one of the games of the round.

New Zealand almost pulled off an unlikely comeback in the final minutes of the game to make it 3-0 against its biggest season rivals. The Taipans led by six points with 1:20 remaining on the clock, but a final second Tom Abercrombie three could have stolen the win for the Breakers.

“I think we did everything to try and lose that in the end,” Taipans coach Adam Forde said post-game. “New Zealand called a timeout and we wanted to call some specific things to close out and it was three possessions in a row we didn’t.

“It’s a good time to do it now because they’re errors we don’t want to make come finals time.

“We’ll address those things and they’re all definitely workable – I’m just happy for the guys to close out another gritty win.”

Like the other battles these two teams have engaged in this season the game inevitably became a tough and physical contest in which foul trouble ran rampant.

Both Shannon Scott and Tahjere McCall finished the game walking the tight-rope with four fouls, as did Breaker Izayah Le’Afa. Jarrell Brantley was fouled a remarkable eight times throughout the game.

Forde refused the criticise New Zealand’s style of play after the tight win.

“The Breakers do a good job of grinding it out in the half-court,” he said. “I’m not going to jump on the narrative of ‘the bully, the All-Black style of play’. They do a good job of pressuring the lanes, getting up on the ball and slowing us down.

“We got in some foul trouble, [so] what was cool about that third quarter more than anything was he had a bench contingent out there and they really held it down and took their opportunity.

“Abercrombie’s shot at the end … I feel like I had the best angle of it standing right behind him and I thought it was going to drop.

“It was good we were able to get the win knowing we blew a six-point lead with about a minute and a half to go and we had possession. That’s something we need to fix.”

Forde has backed his side’s performance all season-long. In his eyes their leap from second bottom in NBL22 to second place in NBL23 isn’t a surprise. It was his expectation.

The crop of players that are leading the Taipans is remarkably different from last season. Shannon Scott has come in as a more experienced head, but the young core that includes first-year Taipans DJ Hogg and Sam Waardenburg - plus Bul Kuol and Keanu Pinder – is what’s getting things done for the Taipans.

“I think about the Zoom meetings and the one on ones when I met with guys first up trying to recruit them to Cairns like ‘this is the vision we want’,” Forde said.

“I think you’re starting to see that play out, and I think I’m the only person that’s not surprised by this … because everyone else wrote us off.

“Everyone else is still saying ‘it’s not a convincing win’ or whatever. We’re six in a row. We’re sitting second. We’re kicking your arse. It’s fun.”