Upset absolutely not out of the question

Based purely on the small sample size of the season to date, Cairns look a strong chance of top 6.

Looking forward to seeing Armstrong and Edwards against United's guards. They've been the stars of their two wins

No betting options available for Adnam or Armstrong and Taipans have blown out further in the odds. Assuming they're both out but haven't found any official announcement.

Groves not playing

That's a huge problem for Cairns

With that call for CG I'm going to be teaching my players to kick out on their shots as it extends their cylinder

Nope, Adnam and Armstrong both in. Strange.

Groves is definitely a loss though.

Double foul? Really?

Taipans looking very good. Excellent first half!

Melbourne get some more than favourable calls.

that foul on Lee for the elbow was a rubbish call. Are you ment to rebound with straight arms?

I think the lady sitting behind the Cairns bench has been planted there to try and distract them :D

100% turnover.

Love this Cairns team effort hope they can keep it up and the ref's don't give United a ride home

How I feel right now. Hopefully someone gets the gag.

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Me: Mum, can I have these please? *points to Cairns Taipans*

Mum: But we've already got these at home son. *points to Brisbane Bullets*

Life on Cairns Island looking very nice!
Rob Edwards will be All-NBL

LOL @ Ben

MaxM hell yeah Taipans Island is pretty nice right now!

Massive W from Cairns. After three rounds it already seems the days of them being taken lightly will be over.

Well-played, Cairns. Far too athletic for a very old United team.

Cairns looking finals bound, now there is a surprise. They keep their top 7-8 players healthy and they will cause massive problems.

Great game by Taipans

Edwards is indeed the microwave

Unfortunately United will regularly have stretches like that 2nd half where they just can't score. Happened in Tasmania and happened in this game. Their offense isn't at the level of an NBL championship team.

I agree LV, seems they are lacking the extra scoring option that JLA was last year.

Didnt matter against a porous Perth defence on Friday, but against good defences they will continue to struggle I feel

The Taipans are so impressive everyone had them derts for the spoon me included and they just refuse to accept their lot in life. Forde's done wonders up there hopefully they re-sign him to a long term deal.

I think Edwards might end up being one of those imports that hangs around for a few years like McCall and Machado before him.

Love seeing a small budget / town team pull the pants down of a big city spending team. How good is this.

So sad to see United have to travel a distance equal to what Cairns has to do for all their away games. A good lesson how hard travelling and playing really is but never acknowledged

Very very pleasing weekend to be a Taipans supporter! Exciting to see the potential in our team this early on in the season. Another big weekend next round. Hope we can stay healthy, that will put is a in a great position at the end of the season.

What the Taipans do with their budget and market is never not impressive

United's roster moves this off-season were a bit weird for a team that is a championship contender virtually every season since Vickerman has been there.

Giving Goulding a 2 year extension despite having a year to go on his previous deal was odd given his age. A show of faith sure but essentially re-signing him to a 3 year deal when he was on the precipce of going over the cliff due to an injury or age and here we are.

Replacing JLA + Hukporti with Loe + Lee was also bizarre. They need at least one good centre but didn't sign one. Too much for White to do. A few guys on the bench who aren't panning out like Cameron, Krebs, Aliir.

It really did seem like they wrote this season off hoping to retool next season perhaps with a returning JLA.

I really hope you're right Zodiac. Unfortunately I can see it being more like Ubaka/Dorsey/Trice/Trimble et al and getting poached by a southern team if he stays in the NBL.

It depends how much they're paying CG and you don't know that Zodiac

Most great shooters in his mould play til they're 37, 38 or more (Heal, Bruton, Rillie, Penney, Copeland etc). I just hope his salary was downgraded and they haven't committed 2 extra years at All-NBL level salary. Again though, we don't know that.

My issue is United basically has the best Aussie/ local group in the NBL (Possible exception Sydney) yet their import signings didn't provide what was needed

Was that a salary issue, perhaps. Could they just not afford someone like a Jaylen Adams, Cam Oliver, Trey Kell, etc.

They needed an elite scorer to add the icing on the cake of the locals who are good players but mostly defensive minded and tough (Delly, White, Ili) they aren't finesse guys who'll go off and score 25.

Edwards looks a very good player. I'm not buying his listed 6'5" looks 6'4" at best so undersized SG which would limit the market for him internationally. The big danger would be another NBL team poaching him but hopefully he stays.

Was at the game today. Taipans were excellent and our worked MU. Rob Edwards was great. He's tough and gets on the glass. Armstrong showed his class and clearly had a big future but the contributions they got from Galloway (particularly in the first half) and Akoldah Gak more than made up for the missing Groves. Wasn’t impressed with their third import Bradshaw but he competed.
MU looked flat and slow. They just didn’t come ready to play. Forde and his team should be very proud of that win, they went in undermanned but were the best team all afternoon.

^^ outworked MU

Great win for Cairns. Not sure they will ever be able to shoot like that again, unbelievable performance. Edwards elite. United not outworked just outplayed today.

Can never rule United out with their outside firepower, but not having the option of just giving the ball to JLA and just getting a relatively easier 2 points when they need it may hurt. Appears they have a lot of money tied up in CG, Delly and IC when they probably could just go with one of them, 2 at most especially having Ili (despite question mark about fitness if he gets a knock to the head again). Then they could have gone for a scorer like a Anthony Lamb who'd either score or collapse the defence.
Lee and Loe are obviously bargain basement bugs, although it looked like lob city hay day in first half for Lee. And they need White to step into a Cooks role, good now but if they want a title need him to raise his game further.
As for that leg kick out 3 call for CG, it's such a grey area. Can either call it a foul or get called for flopping really, how are refs supposed to make a call based on physics if a player catches and releases on the move and body is off balance. Either have the cylinder and bad luck if feet are outside, or if theirs contact call the foul. No way the replay centre was going to overturn that call and embarrass the refs and further muddy the waters.

In most European competitions and even in Olympics they called the leg kick out an offensive foul, yes the leg can be slightly away from your body but not like some players in the nbl are getting away with, it's certainly not a normal jump shot. Imo White and Delly are on the big money, plus Clarke but CG probably took less to extend his contract. United did have time difference on their travel while Cairns didn’t, that Perth trip is crap. United will be fine but CG got get going. Cairns just to strong and are certainly making punters take notice,

One thing about Cairns is the age profile

Very young team.

If 2 or 3 of their young players have a greatly improved year, and their imports collectively exceed expectations, that could get them into top 4. It's happened before.