Maintaining the rage: Taipans won't quit

The Cairns Taipans have been in a world of hurt for much of the season, whether it be with injuries to its stars, or their current 12-game losing streak.

But they’re not giving up. 

If ever there was a time to break that winning drought, beating cross-state rivals Brisbane would be the perfect way to do it. 

“It’s easy to quit and it’s easy to complain. It’s easy to take shortcuts ... I can’t fault the group and the level of professionalism, that they’re working just as hard this week as they were week one,” coach Adam Forde said on Wednesday. 

“Everyone in this gym right now is faced with a little bit of adversity. They’re challenging times, and yet they continue to come to work, getting better and rising above it.

“This is a real testament of their character.”

The Taipans took it up to Perth in the first half last week, only to fall away, in a big way. 

They simply can’t get it done for four quarters right now, but with an emerging star Taran Armstrong starting to shine, and import talents Rob Edwards, Tanner Groves and Pedro Bradshaw at their disposal and finally fit as a group, perhaps the tide can still turn. 

“Guys have personal ambition and you’ve got a collective ambition as well, that you want to continue to get better,” Forde said. 

“They’re in here every day ... we’ve just got to stay committed to it.

“We’ve just got to try and snap this streak.”

Forde called on his bench players to step up, after they didn’t register a single point as a collective last week. 

“The bench this week was really good on the training floor ... we just need to translate it over to the game,” he said. 

Cairns takes on an in-form Brisbane Bullets team at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Friday night, live on ESPN from 7.30pm AEDT.