by Nick Gibson


An old basketball coach of mine used to refer to the ups and downs of a season and within a game as ‘peaks and valleys’.

He wasn’t my favourite coach. In fact he drove me mad but seeing how he went on to be our Aussie mens coach and is an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA , i should give him a little credit.

Brett Browns’ ‘peaks and valleys’ analysis is very true of all sports and right now our Cairns Taipans are at the rock bottom of the ‘valley’!

Winning form is good form and the Taipans have forgotten how to do it.  A mate of mine at the Sydney Kings debacle on Friday night said they found a way to lose it after leading all game. It also looks like Uyinde Ubaka has lost interest and being our 'quarterback' we need his motivation back yesterday!

On the reverse side of the coin our arch enemy and nemesis the Townsville Crocs have found some ‘peaks’ and sit comfortably in second spot.

Did the Taipans peak to early and is this another learning curve for young coach Fearny? A month ago the Taipans were in the box seat and Townsville were staring in the face of adversity but now Cairns face the doomsday double knowing two losses could end their season.

As the playoffs near it’s a good thing to peak and stay right out of those valleys!
 
In footy the Brisbane Lions have continued their preseason quietly after a tumultuous fortnight but my eyes are on the 2001 ten year premiership reunion which is to be held at the Gabba soon.

I get the feeling that the hugging and mateship are no longer as strong with this particular group as maybe ten years ago. Bradshaw, Akermanis, Voss, Leppitch and Matthews to name a few, would probably have trouble sharing the same table.

In fact i don’t think anyone would want to sit with Aker or Vossy at the moment and i can’t see that changing anytime soon. If they want to add salt into the wound why don’t they get Fev to MC it? Or get Aker to do a five minute comedy skit belittling ‘rangas’ (red hair jokes which he constantly harassed Leppitch with). It could quite easily turn into an all in brawl!

It just goes to show, make the most of your premierships as who knows what the future holds...
 
In rugby Todd Carney admitted having a drinking problem after blowing 0.052 this week. I bet he was booked by the same cop who got me doing 62 km (2km over) through Ellis beach a few years back. Give me a break!!