Resilient Taipans finally getting rewards

The best coaches always know what buttons to push to get the best out of their playing group, and Adam Forde looks a genius for challenging his Cairns Taipans players after last Sunday's loss to the Adelaide 36ers.

On the back of Forde challenging his players to not waste the last five games, they stepped up to make it two wins in the space of 48 hours on opposite sides of the country against the two teams who came into the round in the top two spots.

Forde was quick to praise the resilience of the Taipans players after Saturday night's double overtime win in Perth.

"We didn’t deserve the 15-game losing streak and the boys have been so resilient throughout the whole season, and it's character building," Forde said.

"Even in that stretch where (Sam) Waardenburg (24 points, nine rebounds, nine assists) fouls out and Tanner (Groves, 22 points, six rebounds) has to come out because he's got blood coming out of his face which was a no call.

"AK (Gak) and KG (Kyrin Galloway) who relatively sat the entire fourth had to come in. KG makes some massive free throws and AK secures that massive rebound at the end.

"It's by committee and a collective group, and I'm happy the boys are sort of rewarding themselves for what's been a very punishing season in the sense of results, training, injuries and everything else."

Even during a 15-game losing streak, the Taipans continued to turn up week after week to put themselves in winning positions, and now to start 2025 things have started to come together.

You take out last Sunday's disappointing home loss to Adelaide and the Taipans have won four of their other six games to open 2025 and are showing what might have been had they had more of their full squad available for longer this season.

Given the Snakes were out of top six contention by the time they lost to Adelaide, there was a chance that Forde's harsh critique, particularly on his starting group, could have fallen on deaf ears.

That was anything but the case and the Taipans players have responded exactly how Forde envisioned, showing the connection between coach and his group remains as strong as ever.

For the second time already in 2025, they beat the league-leading Illawarra Hawks in Cairns on Thursday night ahead of a full day of travelling ahead of facing Perth.

The Snakes started 7-2 on the way to leading 22-18 by quarter-time and putting up 34 points in the second quarter to lead 56-47 at the half.

That's where the resilience comes in because the Wildcats put up 35 points in the third term and were leading by eight with 3:45 to go, but the Snakes forced overtime.

They blew a chance to close it out in the first overtime, but got the job done in the second for the two stunning upset wins in the space of 48 hours.

What makes Forde such a successful coach is that he just tells it how it is. Whether it's in a team meeting, at practice, in a timeout or when talking to the media, there's no façade about him.

He is quick to heap praise when you do well and doesn’t hold back letting you know when you don't, and that's where he was so happy with the response from the loss to Adelaide.

"The boys have always responded with everything. Sometimes I can be overly critical and in one timeout I just went straight at Kyle Adnam," Forde said.

"I feel like he dropped the ball on a couple of examples and even afterwards I felt kinda bad about it to a degree, but they always respond.

"This is what I love about the group whether we're winning or losing, and whatever injuries we have, they've always responded. I knew I was going to get a response because I still care and they still care.

"It's cool that we won but even if we didn’t and the boys played a particular way which showed they played with heart and determination that's all I can ask for."

Adnam is the one veteran presence on this Taipans team, with 238 NBL games under his belt.

Forde has also ridden Adnam as hard as anybody this season but a lot of that is because he knows the 31-year-old can take it on the chin and respond, and he was instrumental in both wins.

With Taran Armstrong out, the majority of the ball handling duties went to both Rob Edwards and Adnam, and Adnam had 15 points and five assists in Perth including a monster three in the first overtime, and the last two free throws to ice the win.

"Kyle has been massive all season and even with the back room conversations he has with Taran and Rob, and all the guys," Forde said.

"There was one practice he went at the group and I was like 'hell yeah, Kyle' and instead me doing it, it was him doing it and I was like 'f*** yeah, good on you, let's go'.

"He's been fantastic and he's an amazing soldier whether he's DNP'ing or playing 30 minutes, and controlling the tempo. He's been absolutely massive."