How to watch & talking points: Cairns v Brisbane

Cairns Taipans (9th) v Brisbane Bullets (10th)
Saturday, January 12, 7.30pm AEDT
Cairns Convention Centre

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Talking points

Plenty on the line
It may be a battle of the bottom two teams on the ladder, but that will only make this an even more competitive game.

One of these teams is likely to finish bottom of the ladder, so this ends up being a big double-points contest.

The Bullets are facing a brutal injury list, but they have shown some fight and response under interim head coach Darryl McDonald.

The Taipans are riding a high after they went into Melbourne and beat United in last Wednesday's Ignite Cup game and will try to replicate that result at home.

Waardenburg's friendly matchup
The Taipans' marquee big man, Sam Waardenburg, has returned from his ankle injury in superb form and doesn't look like slowing down anytime soon.

With the Bullets missing some key pieces due to injury, the New Zealand big man will have a favourable matchup that he can look to exploit in this game here.

His ability to score from all three levels makes him one of the more unique big men in the entire competition and the tandem with Jack McVeigh is fun to watch

What they're saying

Cairns coach Adam Forde on the contributions is whole squad is making:
“We can talk about Andrew Andrews 13 points and 13 assists, Sam Waardenburg being an elite all-round player and Jack McVeigh being an absolute bucket-getter. But it was an all-round contribution from a lot of guys.

"Kyrin Galloway hit big shots at the start to tick the scoreboard over. Lachlan Barker, Marcus Lee and everyone stepped up.

"Momentum is a funny thing. It can be one game, two games. For us, the momentum has been quarter to quarter. Especially the past two games, we had two great opening quarters and then the momentum was about stringing the third quarter together.

"Today (Wednesday, we had four great quarters against a hell of a team. Now it’s about stringing two wins together. Quarter by quarter, possession by possession."

Brisbane guard Mitch Norton on his team's fight:
"I really don't like losing and it's hard to take moral victories out of a loss, but I think the city deserves a team that fights.

"Queenslanders are known to fight to the end it was cool to see Justin Hodges sitting on the sidelines, a State of Origin great, and someone that did a lot for this city in the rugby league world.

"He epitomises what a Queenslander is so it's really cool to see him in the stadium supporting us and the fight was amazing, and it's a good starting point.

"Obviously third quarters are still something that we need to address and we're fully aware of it."

Missing in action

Cairns
Alex Higgins-Titsha - Wrist - Season
Reyne Smith - Foot - Round 15

Brisbane
Casey Prather - Knee - Season
Dakota Mathias - Shoulder - February
Javon Freeman-Liberty - Hamstring - January 11
Lamar Patterson - Hamstring - Season
Sam McDaniel - Calf - February
Tyrell Harrison - Concussion – January 11

>> View full injury list