BEECROFT PLAYS WAY TO A SHOT AT CAIRNS BASKETBALL HISTORY
THE first father-son combination to win a championship for Cairns will be crowned if the Marlins can overcome Mackay Meteors in the inaugural NBL1 North championship series.
Jaylon Beecroft will wear the blue singlet at Mackay this weekend, just as his father Mark did in championship-winning teams more than two decades ago.
Mark Beecroft, who is now the Cairns Basketball president and CEO of the Cairns Taipans, played and coached in several Marlins outfits during his time, but there is one team which stands out above the rest – and has even more significance in 2021.
The 2004 Marlins were a team which featured some of the great names of Cairns basketball’s history.
Men like Aron Baynes, Nate Jawai, Curt Ahwang, Kerry Williams, Aaron Fearne and Aaron Grabau donned the blue of the Marlins in the team’s 2004 season, a year in which they produced one of the greatest seasons in club history on their way to a national championship.
Courtside, clipboard in hand, was Beecroft, who won championships as a player in the late 1990s before making the jump to Marlins coach in 2000 and enjoyed more success over the next few years.
And on his bench was a young Williams, who would go on to play for the Taipans in the NBL – and has led the Marlins to a grand final series in his first year as head coach.
“That year was particularly special for the basketball component of it – you have a look at the group that played and won the 2004 national tournament,” Beecroft said.
“To get to that tournament was quite a process in winning through three games in Brisbane.
“Kerry himself that year was part of a Queensland North U18s national championship win as a junior, so he’d been coming in and out of our group through the season.
“As his state commitments finalised and at the back end of the year, he finished his under-18 tournament, he played the season out.
“(He) in particular was an integration piece, but the rest of the group, it was the first year a team made up of all Australians had won that national tournament.
“That became a special group. “It was special for us from a Cairns Basketball perspective because we’d aligned our recruiting strategy around it, and it also contained Aron Baynes, Nathan Jawai, Kerry Williams, Curt Ahwang, Aaron Grabau, Aaron Fearne, Ben Arkell, Kane Oakley – it was a very talented team.”
Also on the sideline that day was a nine-month-old Jaylon, sitting in dad’s arms in the championship-winning photo which sits on the wall at Cairns Basketball's Aumuller St HQ (pictured above). Fast forward 17 years, and Jaylon has proved himself capable of mixing it at NBL1 level.
It’s been a long-held goal to make that level, and years of early mornings – before school and on weekends – have paid off in his debut campaign.
Of course, he attributes part of that growth to Beecroft’s commitment in making sure he gets time at the court.
“Playing with older guys is really good for me – playing with guys who have had experience in the NBL, and Nate in the NBA,” Jaylon said.
“Learning from those guys is massive and takes my game to another level. But over the years, just knowing I have a goal to get to and that’s to play in the NBL1 or QBL.
“Just putting that work in when I was young, from Dad taking me to the court at five in the morning, before school, and early training sessions on the weekend, knowing I have that goal to reach so I have to do what I have to do. I learnt a lot (this season), especially from Kerry, who when he was playing, was my position. Having him there to teach me and give me pointers at how to be better at my position is unreal.
“Especially Curt, Deba and Fish, those guys having that experience to be able to pass it down to guys like me and younger guys in the training group, having them there has helped me take my game to another level.
“It’s wild. Growing up I never thought I’d be in this situation where I’m playing with guys he coached – Kerry, Curt, all those guys. It’s surreal. I didn’t expect to do this, but I’ve been working hard and getting myself into a position where I’m able to do this.”
Beecroft said Jaylon’s success was his own doing.
“I’m proud of Jay, he’s not had it easy,” Beecroft said.
“People will arguably say that he’s my son so he gets the foot in the door.
“For people who have been around that know … I coached him as a young kid in under-12s, and he probably copped it harder than most kids.
“Parents walking through the doors here asking why Jay was out the front and not training with the rest of the team and that’s because I kicked him out for not doing the right thing. He’s worn the brunt of it, as has his sister. “He’s earned his place.” “They know it’s going to be difficult, but they have to accept those challenges … and it’s no different to other kids. It will be problematic if they make it a problem, but right now they’re in their own right doing the work to be able to earn positions for selection themselves.
“If they’re not good enough, they won’t make it, and that’s been clear.”