The Weekend Post

WORK HARD, GET LUCKY

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How influentia­l was Rod Popp (right), the former Cairns Marlins and inaugural Cairns Taipans coach, in the early days?

AIf it was not for him, we would not have made the first phone call to Malcolm Speed, then boss of the NBL. He lifted the organisati­on out of a mediocre position in the state league, before winning our first state league title in 1993. Rod’s constant theme was “we could be in the NBL”. I listened to that for a while and one day I was sick of hearing it and asked him what he thought we had to do. He had no idea (laughs). I think Mal thought we were a couple of rich cowboys, which we were not — we were just trying to build it from the floor up. At that time, the NBL was played in winter with their off-season in summer. So to compete against them, we had to airconditi­on the facility. That is how we got the first interest-free loan for the airconditi­oning. We went back and forth with the local council about the guarantee. I spoke with the state government and we eventually got it done. That old adage is “the harder you work, the luckier you get”, and that is something I learnt from Rod.

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