Forde: 'We weathered the storm'

The Cairns Taipans escaped Brisbane with a narrow victory on Sunday evening, and Adam Forde has praised his team’s ability to “weather the storm” in the face of a dramatic Bullets comeback.

Mitch Norton nailed what Brisbane believed to be a game-winning three at the buzzer, but the shot was ruled out as the siren had already sounded. Had it counted, it would have marked a successful comeback, from as far as 22 points down in the third quarter.

If the Taipans had lost it would have marked their third defeat in four games, and they had already suffered a Round 11 loss to New Zealand just two games prior.

“It sounds crazy, but I think it was a good teaching point for the guys just to be able to weather the storm,” Forde said of the win. “I highlighted after the last game against New Zealand how I felt we were panicked, so this was a good moment to see if we fixed that and I feel like for the short-term we did something good.

“We’ve always had a pretty good record of a bounce back after a pretty poor performance, and that ties in again with building that consistency.

“We knew Brisbane had all the weapons to bring it back, especially with the way they play and how they stay locked in on their process. They don’t shy away on the game plan, they still hit hard on screens, they were still getting shooters their shots.

“They didn’t hit them much in the first half, but that fourth quarter they took confidence in their shot and I feel like that’s where a timeout would have been nice.”

Sam Mennenga was injected back into the starting lineup and bounced back from a string of quieter performances to star against Brisbane’s strong rotation of bigs.

In particular it was his battle with Aron Baynes that caught eyes, and the 22-year-old didn’t take a backwards step against the NBA veteran.

“I enjoy those battles,” Mennenga said. “I think I’m built for it so I embrace it – I’m not lifting weights for no reason.

“My teammates have faith in me, they yell at me for turning down threes and 'Fordey' yells at me for turning down threes. You might miss a few, you might go some games without getting those looks, but you have to stay confident.

“It’s that word ‘together’. Everything we did was together. We were upset with a call? We moved on. I think we did that together and we did that well, and then people made threes – people made shots. It’s not a perfect game, but we moved on pretty quickly on each possession which was great.

“We stood up to the plate and we brought the effort, not the challenge it to continue that. We have to keep the effort up, and we can’t be satisfied with this win and a great fight.”

Due to the closure of Cairns Airport, the Taipans are currently unable to return home in the wake of tropical cyclone Jasper.

Forde called on residents of the city to continue to stick together in the face of adversity.

“As I said after the game against New Zealand, I appreciate everybody’s efforts to come out and support us, but obviously the priority right now is your home and your house,” he said.

“There’s been something online about a cow that got swept up in the floods and the community saved this cow. This is what’s great about Cairns that I’ve never experienced before having lived in major cities for the majority of my life. That genuine, neighborhood engagement.

“It’s important for the community to stay together and look out for each other, and we’ve got you backs because we know you have ours and we’ll get home soon.”

Cairns’ next game is fixtured for Friday night against South East Melbourne, before the Taipans then host Perth on Boxing Day.