Cairns Taipans: Five things you need to know

• Cairns Taipans are the oldest NBL team yet to win a championship
• Cairns' 2025 off-season remains largely incomplete
• The Taipans see themselves as a league disruptor

Two grand finals, no championship in 27 seasons, and a club still owned by its members. The Cairns Taipans, explained.

The Taipans joined the NBL in 1999 and have never won it. Twenty-seven seasons, nine finals campaigns, two grand finals and no banner. They have also spent almost all of that time as the league's outlier: the smallest market, the furthest north, and the last club still owned by its community rather than by an investor.

NBL26 SEASON SUMMARY

• Record: 9-24, finished 9th
• Finals: did not qualify
• Head coach: Adam Forde
• Captain: Sam Waardenburg
• Club MVP: Jack McVeigh

It was a second straight season at the bottom of the ladder after 8-21 and last place in NBL25, and it came with Forde back on the bench having walked away four months earlier. He returned in June saying he had to be part of what he called the club's new era.

THE OFF-SEASON

The recruit who matters most is Reyne Smith, the Boomers sharpshooter who signed a two-year deal after a standout final NCAA season at Louisville, where he made 3.5 threes a game from 9.1 attempts. He turned down offers in Europe to come home, and said a conversation with former Taipan Taran Armstrong helped decide it.

THE CLUB

• Home: Cairns Convention Centre, known as The Snakepit
• Owners: Taipans Basketball Incorporated, a community-owned model
• CEO: Mark Beecroft. President: Troy Stone
• Head coach: Adam Forde
• NBL1 affiliate: Cairns Marlins

Across 27 seasons the Taipans have played 796 regular season games for 329 wins and 467 losses. They have made the finals nine times, won one regular season championship, and gone 13-18 in finals.

And the ownership model is the live story. President Troy Stone told CODE Sports the club could shake its community-owned status and privatise, if the right buyer appears. "I believe the Taipans will still be around in five years if there's no private ownership," he said, "but it's going to get harder and harder every season to remain competitive without taking that step."

TEAM HISTORY

The club entered the NBL in 1999 and won 17 games in its first three seasons. The first real run came in the mid-2000s behind Martin Cattalini, an All-NBL First Team selection in 2007, and Chris Burgess before him in 2005.

In December 2008 the club went into voluntary administration. The coach and the imports went, players took pay cuts, and the league and the Cairns council stepped in to keep it alive.

The first grand final came in 2011, behind the import trio of Ron Dorsey, Ayinde Ubaka and Daniel Dillon. Cairns lost game one to the New Zealand Breakers 85-67, then won game two 85-81 in double overtime. It was the first play-off match in NBL history decided in double overtime: C.J. Bruton hit a three in the dying seconds of regulation, and Dorsey answered with a three at the buzzer at the end of the first extra period. New Zealand took game three 71-53, with Ubaka and Dorsey shooting 4-of-26 between them. All three imports left for the Melbourne Tigers after a single season.

The best team the club has had came in 2014-15. Cairns finished first at 21-7, the first regional club to top the ladder since the Geelong Supercats in 1984, and did it using the same starting five all season: Scottie Wilbekin, Cameron Gliddon, Stephen Weigh, Alex Loughton and Matt Burston. The Taipans reached a second grand final and lost to New Zealand again.

The Taipans have not won a finals series since.

CLUB LEGENDS

Aaron Grabau is the only Taipan to have his number retired. He wore 8 from the club's first season in 1999 until 2013, fourteen years at one club in a league where almost nobody stays.

Martin Cattalini made the All-NBL First Team in 2007 and the Third Team in 2006, and is the player around whom the Taipans built their first competitive era.

Scottie Wilbekin was the All-NBL First Team point guard of the 21-7 side in 2015, and Cameron Gliddon, the 2013 Rookie of the Year, was beside him in that unchanged starting five. Alex Loughton and Ayinde Ubaka both made the All-NBL Third Team in the 2011 grand final year.

Scott Machado made the All-NBL First Team in 2020 and captained the club. Keanu Pinder won the Most Improved Player award in back-to-back years, 2022 and 2023, and made the All-NBL Second Team in 2023.

Nathan Jawai won the Rookie of the Year award at Cairns in 2008 and went on to be drafted into the NBA.

HONOUR ROLL

• Championships: none
• Grand final appearances: two, in 2011 and 2015
• Finals appearances: nine, in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2020 and 2023
• Regular season championships: one, in 2014-15
• All-NBL First Team: Chris Burgess (2005), Martin Cattalini (2007), Scottie Wilbekin (2015), Scott Machado (2020)
• NBL Rookie of the Year: Nathan Jawai (2008), Cameron Gliddon (2013), Bul Kuol (2022)
• NBL Most Improved Player: Gary Boodnikoff (2006), Keanu Pinder (2022, 2023)
• NBL Coach of the Year: Aaron Fearne (2015), Mike Kelly (2020), Adam Forde (2023)
• Retired numbers: Aaron Grabau (8)

THE MODERN ERA, SEASON BY SEASON

• 2019-20 3rd 16-12 Mike Kelly, lost the semi-final series to Perth
• 2020-21 9th 8-28 Mike Kelly
• 2021-22 9th 9-19 Adam Forde
• 2022-23 3rd 18-10 Adam Forde, won a play-in game then lost the semi-final series to Sydney
• 2023-24 8th 12-16 Adam Forde
• 2024-25 10th 8-21 Adam Forde
• 2025-26 9th 9-24 Adam Forde

Two top-three finishes and two wooden-spoon-adjacent seasons in seven years, which is the whole club in miniature.

FIVE FAST FACTS

1. The Taipans have never won an NBL championship, and 2026 was their 27th season.

2. Aaron Grabau's 8 is the only number the club has retired. He played for Cairns from 1999 to 2013.

3. Game two of the 2011 grand final was the first play-off match in NBL history decided in double overtime.

4. The 2014-15 Taipans were the first regional club to finish top of the NBL ladder since the Geelong Supercats in 1984, and used the same starting five all season.

5. Keanu Pinder won the NBL Most Improved Player award in consecutive seasons, 2022 and 2023.

CLUB TIMELINE

• 1999: Joined the NBL.
• 2001: Ben Knight made the All-NBL Third Team, the club's first.
• 2004: First finals appearance.
• 2008: Went into voluntary administration in December.
• 2009: Kept alive by the league and the Cairns council.
• 2011: First grand final, lost to New Zealand after a double-overtime win in game two.
• 2015: Finished first at 21-7 and lost a second grand final to New Zealand.
• 2023: Won a play-in game and reached the semi-finals under Adam Forde.
• 2026: Finished 9th at 9-24, a second straight season near the bottom.

WHAT NBL27 LOOKS LIKE

Forde is back for a fifth season in charge across two stints, and he is the most decorated coach the club has had since Aaron Fearne. Reyne Smith gives them a shooter of genuine NBL quality, which the roster has lacked.

But the sentence that matters most is not about the roster. It is Troy Stone's: it will get harder every season to stay competitive without private ownership. The Taipans have survived administration once and have been the league's most-loved underdog for a quarter of a century. The next thing they have to do is stop being an underdog, and the club's own president has said what that will take.