Henare rules out taking Taipans job
Meares to let team have their own space
BASKETBALL PAUL Henare has ruled himself out of the running to become the Cairns Taipans next coach, with the New Zealand Tall Blacks mentor focusing on his national team duties.
Henare last month quit as the New Zealand Breakers head coach in the NBL after failing to come to terms with the club’s new owners.
The announcement caught much of the basketball fraternity off guard with the former Breakers coach immediately linked with the Taipans vacancy, following Aaron Fearne’s exit from the club.
Henare expressed curiosity in the Taipans top job following his exit from the Breakers but talks did not proceed any further with Cairns not interested in a coach that would hold a dual-role.
Henare coached the Breakers and Tall Blacks at the same time over the past three seasons before parting ways with the NBL club.
As the Tall Blacks landed in Cairns on Sunday afternoon, the 39-year-old said he had no plans of moving to the Far North.
“No, I will not be applying for that job,” Henare said of the Cairns Taipans job opening. “I already have moved on from the Breakers, for me, I have the best job in the world coaching the Tall Blacks, my country.
“It does not get any better than that for me.”
The Tall Blacks kick off their Commonwealth Games campaign against Nigeria on Friday night in Cairns and Henare is not looking any further than the Ike Diogu-led team.
“We are not focusing on beating the Aussies, we are focusing on ourselves over the next few days and getting ready,” Henare said.
“We are looking at Nigeria, Australia and then Canada to hopefully get through to a semi-final, right now, that our main focus.
“Over the last couple of years whenever we get together, we talk about having a good mix of youth and experience.
“That has worked well for us the last couple of years and we will be asking for them to contribute and help achieve our goals.”
The Tall Blacks are tipped as the Boomers main threats to claim gold as they landed in Cairns with a strong squad, led by veteran enforcer and captain Mika Vukona, Alex Pledger and Thomas Abercrombie.
“Everyone is eager to get this thing underway really, we have had a couple of training runs and Friday can’t come around quick enough,” Vukona said.
“We have got a tough pool, Australia, Nigeria, they are no slouches, and Canada.”
The women open the basketball tournament in Cairns as Jamaica face India on Thursday before New Zealand tackle Malaysia.
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is CYCLING ANNA Meares will keep her distance from her former teammates on the Gold Coast this week as Cycling Australia sends its first team to a major Games without her since 2000.
The two-time Olympic gold medallist has competed at every Commonwealth and Olympic Games since Manchester in 2002 and retired after the Rio Olympics in 2016.
She will be at the Games as an ambassador and has the velodrome in Brisbane named after her, but the 34-year-old said she won’t be in the Aussie pits during the racing.
“I’ll go and say ‘hello’ but I don’t feel it’s my place anymore, there’s a new team dynamic, a new team network and they’ve got new people in it and are functioning very successfully within it,” Meares said.
“I am proud that I was a part of that and moved the culture and team dynamics forward and it’s their job now to do their thing, I don’t have to meddle with that.
“I get invited (to training) every now and then which is nice but at the moment for me it’s good to let them do their own thing, I’ve been around long enough.”
Meares admitted she was tempted to ride on to the Gold Coast Games and retire on home soil but her ailing back wouldn’t allow it.
“I would have really liked to have gone on to Gold Coast and ridden there on that track at home where I grew up and it all started,” she said.
“... but it just didn’t quite happen for me with injuries and that sort of stuff, I had to call my time after Rio.”