SPORT
Friday December 11, 2020
Cairns Local News
Taipans Indigenous Program visits Cape and Torres Strait THE popular Sea Swift Taipans Indigenous Program has completed another successful visit to remote Far North Queensland communities, recently delivering sessions to hundreds of local students on Thursday Island and Bamaga. Headed by Taipans Indigenous Programs Manager and former NBL star Kerry Williams, the program aims to spread healthy living messages to children living in Cape York Peninsula and the Torres Strait Islands. Since March 2019, the award-winning Sea Swift Taipans Indigenous Program has: • engaged more than 2,000 Indigenous youth in 25 communities • spent more than 150 hours delivering the sessions. CQUniversity Cairns Taipans centre Nate Jawai made the recent visits extra special for the children as part of the regular program across the region, which encourages kids to stay in
school, keep active, and eat healthily. In 2009, Jawai became the first Torres Strait Islander to play in the world-famous National Basketball Association (NBA), and played a key role in the Taipans’ highly-successful 2019-20 NBL season. Williams said the students are always excited to meet the local basketball legend, who grew up in Bamaga. “Nate loves being back home. He is a positive influence for his community, and when the kids hear he is coming, they make sure they get to school, so they do not miss out,” said Williams. “Nate is able to tell his story and address our key message of respect through story. “Nate speaks at assemblies about his journey, and then plays games, hands out T-shirts, and reiterates his respect message – there’s always a lot of excitement from the students.” In the past 18 months, the Sea Swift Taipans Indig-
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enous Program has visited Warraber Island, Thursday Island, Bamaga, Murray Island, Mornington Island, Northern Peninsula Area, Kowanyama, Hope Vale, Cooktown, Wujal Wujal, and Cairns West State School, Parramatta State School, Manoora, and Mooroobool in Cairns. Sea Swift Acting Chief Executive Officer Lino Bruno said Sea Swift had a proud record of supporting local communities, and was thrilled to support a national sporting organisation such as the CQUniversity Cairns Taipans. “Sea Swift has been proudly servicing remote communities in northern Australia for decades, and we always play an active role in the communities where we operate,” Mr Bruno said. “The Taipans are more than just a national sports team. They’re dedicated to utilising their organisation as a vehicle for social change, and we’re proud to be involved.”
No excuses for performance PETER MCCULLAGH
IT has been a season of extreme highs coupled with unfathomable depths for the Cairns Falcons. Playing in this year’s ReefBowl, the Falcons are currently are 2 from 4 for the season. Huge wins over gridiron newcomers, Townsville Chargers have been soured by losses to Mackay as well as the Townsville Cyclones. Last weekend the Falcons were not in the game against the Cyclones. Playing at home the Falcons could only
DECEMBER 2020
manage 7 points whilst conceding 57 to the visitors.
there. Perhaps we thought we had it won.
Injury and unavailability have been blamed for the loss, along with inexperience both in defence and attack, however Coach Jim Garcia believes there was no excuse for the poor showing.
“We were weak in defence, leaking too many points in the first half. When we got aggressive in defence in the second half we restricted Townsville to only one touchdown.
“There was enough experience on the paddock to put in a stronger effort. “We showed we were here to play. The first drive of the game we marched down the field and scored. We showed we could match it there. “It went pear shape from
“Our attack also failed to capitalise on opportunities. They needed to win more yardage to give our defensive line something to defend. “From here we head back to training before taking a break over Christmas and will return to competition on January 16,” stated Garcia.
