Cairns Taipans

The Day After

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It’s been a day since the Cairns Taipans gave United the fatal bite to ensure the team didn’t make the NBL Finals sparking off celebrations from different teams across the nation.

Melbourne Tigers fans as well as Adelaide and Perth fans are today likely to be found struggling to shake off the effects of a night of celebration that began long before the final whistle of last nights play, these celebrations may impact many people’s Valentine’s Day plans.

For Tigers fans it was a sweet result against United’s money over tradition and loyalty owners while for Adelaide and Perth fans they are celebrating knowing there is absolutely no chance United could overtake either side even if the odds of Melbourne making the finals were extremely large before tip-off last night.

South Dragons supporters today couldn’t help but noting that they made the finals in their first season while the Tigers and United couldn’t which will most likely not win them any fans in their attempt to re-enter the NBL and instead send fans to the South East Melbourne Magic camp instead.

Detractors to the South Dragons supporters comments could say that the NBL was a lot tougher in 1984 (Tigers) and this year (United Ballers) while the Dragons era was in the middle of an NBL collapse which ironically lead to the Dragons falling on their sword instead of choosing to stay and fight in the NBL or go to SEABL.

Meanwhile The Age has reported that D-Mac is still hoping to be coach next season, D-Mac has not had the opportunity to coach a side with a lineup of his choosing (stories are that he was unhappy with the 2014/15 lineup) and is hoping it is third time lucky, standing in the way of his appointment is his interim record and the fact that former Melbourne Tigers player and multiple NBL team coach Brian Goorjian is wanted by many in the United Ballers camp to be the man picked for the 2015/16 season.

Goorjian is known for being a successful coach with all but two seasons of his NBL coaching seasons spent in the NBL finals but he is also known for being in charge of NBL clubs when they merged or died, Teams in this list were the Eastside Spectres, South East Melbourne Magic, Victoria Titans, Sydney Kings and South Dragons with only the Kings so far rising from the dead.

Melbourne Tigers fans are reminded that the juniors seasons are now underway and we wish them the very best as we continue to countdown towards the beginning of the 2015 Big V season, there is no doubt that things are a lot sunnier for Tigers fans than they were just 48 hours ago.

Maury

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Taipans bite United again

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Cairns Taipans last week gave Melbourne United a ‘debut’ to forget and last night the Taipans again dominated United by winning 88 to 73 with former Melbourne Tiger Cameron Tragardh top scoring for the Taipans with 18 points.

There have been many wisecracks made since the end of the game with many wondering if Darryl McDonald will be coach on Sunday against the NZ Breakers after Chris Anstey ‘stepped down’ after coaching United for just one regular season game, United will be playing at the Margaret Court Arena and Bet365.com is being really generous giving United ($1.87) shorter odds than New Zealand ($1.95) who is currently 2-0 compared to United’s 0-2 while TAB Sportsbet has both sides at $1.90 each.

It will be interesting to see if Melbourne United do honour any of the past Victorian NBL teams with jerseys ranging from the rafters (or outside the court like the Tigers ones at Hisense Arena) or not, while hanging famous jerseys is considered a good gesture it is considered meaningless by many for the numbers aren’t retired and in many eyes an honoured player is known by both name and number.

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United badly bitten by the Cairns Taipans

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After all the hype and all the still continuing fighting between Pro Tigers and Pro United fans it was finally time for Melbourne United to show NBL fans what they had for the competition, their opponents for the match were the Cairns Taipans and the Taipans bit United hard early and by the end of the afternoon killed them with a convincing 89 to 61 win, United simply had no answers against the Taipans making United seem to be unable to walk their walk and talk their talk.

Hisense Arena was not sold out with a reported crowd of 5,704 people watching the game (including free ticket users), spectators and TV viewers reported that sections of the Arena were empty with TV making it glaring obvious play by play, reports on crowd atmosphere vary with some saying the game had a good atmosphere while others report that the crowd were lacking energy and were never into the game, the next couple of games will be interesting to see if crowd levels raise, hold or fall with Victorians thirst for competitive teams set to dictate terms for if United wins crowds will rise and losses will send crowds spiraling putting United’s owner’s aspirations into a deep hole.

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Is United controlling what is said?

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Melbourne Tigers fans reading the newspaper today would of been amused at the sight of seeing the Melbourne Tiger beside the Cairns Taipans logo for the game coming up on Sunday instead of Melbourne United’s logo.

Amusement would of turned to amazement when looking below the picture and seeing Mark Worthington’s comments would of noticed that his comments on the Tigers situation were word for word to comments made by Chris Anstey earlier this week when he was live on SEN with him answering a text message submitted to the station by a Melbourne Tigers fan, those who want to see Mark Worthington’s words can see them below while Chris Anstey’s appearance on SEN can be heard here.

The word for word usage by Worthington and Anstey has lead to questions of whether or not that Melbourne United has a tight leash on what players, coaching staff and other members of the organization are allowed to say to the media and other outlets.

We Are Not United thank all the fans who provided us with the information and pictures for this article.

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