Snakes challenged to back up strong form

COACH Mike Kelly has issued a stern challenge to his inconsistent playing group: string two great performances together.

In a lengthy post-training briefing yesterday morning at the Fish Tank, following an extended training session, the second-year Cairns mentor instructed his squad to not accept their win over Brisbane, but look to build on it against Perth this Saturday.

The 3-6 club have not won two on the trot this season and the last time they did so dates back to the later stages of last season.

“It is the same theme of locking in on what our job is and doing it better each week and continuing to do it,” Kelly said. “We cannot say ‘hey, we did it pretty well last week, we are good with that’, it is about continuing to get better.

“It is very rare that we talk about winning, but it is about playing two in a row, playing the right way.

“We want to have back to back weeks of playing the right way the whole game, that was more of my challenge to the group. I think when we are focused and locked in, that gives us a very good shot of winning two in a row.”

Perth coach Trevor Gleeson is aware of a Cairns side that belted them in their last meeting. “We’re more mindful of ourselves and how we’re playing, the last time we played Cairns the game got away from us,” Gleeson said.

Taipans development player Tai Wynyard was sporting a moon boot at practice yesterday and did not take part in training, but did assist teammates in shooting drills.

All nine NBL teams will wear city themed uniforms across the next two rounds to celebrate their respective cities and cultures. Rookie forward Kouat Noi modelled the uniform after training yesterday.

Reserve guard Mirko Djeric may miss the weekend doubleheader as he did not appear to train on Thursday.

Elsewhere, the NBL Game Review Panel has issued a onegame suspension to Taylor Braun of the Brisbane Bullets for an incident involving DJ Newbill of the Cairns Taipans in the fourth quarter of last Saturday’s game.

Braun was charged with unduly rough play, with the contact found to be careless, high and medium impact.

Braun’s penalty can be reduced to a $750 fine with an early guilty plea.