Jawai: Best product to ever come out of the region

There was a full house at CQUniversity Cairns Taipans headquarters this week for Nathan Jawai’s announcement, with staff, board members and special guest MP Curtis Pitt joining the media opportunity to acknowledge the significance of the new two-year commitment between both parties.

The Speaker for Queensland Parliament was involved with the first press conference to announce Jawai’s long-awaited return to Cairns in 2016 and said it was brilliant for the club to facilitate another multi-year contract.

“It gives me great pleasure to see one of Far North Queensland’s favourite sons re-signing with the Taipans. Nate is one of the best products to ever come out of this region,” Mr Pitt said.

“He is the heart and soul of this Taipans side, particularly with the leadership role he has continued to demonstrate on the court. I’m very pleased to see the Taipans roster coming together now - it was a very competitive roster last year, I think it’s going to be even more so this year, with some of the changes around the league.  

“Nate is at that part of his career, where he is a leader on the court, off the court, and he’s making sure he continues to be a great role model for lots of young people around Far North Queensland.”

Alongside Curtis Pitt, a proud Head Coach Mike Kelly said that he was excited to build towards the future with the dominant 34-year old centre along for the journey.

“Nate remaining here and seeing a really big chunk of his career here is really cool. Some of those years have been up, some have been down with both records and injury, but I think with the buy-in the group had last season - he sees where we want to go, and he’s going to be a big part of us achieving that. I’m excited that he’s still excited,” said Kelly.

“Since I came in, Nate’s been a big part of the group. What I thought was so important was that he’s grown – his play on the court has not dropped and we expect that to go forward. We want Nate to continue to be the best target in the post in the NBL.

“Off the court he’s been stellar. Even though he was a co-captain last season, it’s the way he’s gone about his business and his leadership – whether he’s a captain or not – it’s just his attitude and the way he carries himself every day.”

The in-demand NBL veteran did field offers from other teams, but his decision to remain with the Taipans was made based on his future with the club and the chemistry with his current team mates.

“It’s a long way down the track, but I’m planning on retiring here. And I’ve never been at a club for a long period of time, I didn’t even realise this [contract] would make it seven seasons so that’s big time for me.

“Throughout my whole career, I’ve only had a one-year deal or a two-year deal, so it’s awesome I’ll be at the Taipans for this long.

“The club and I are working on something behind-the-scenes which I can’t reveal right now, but the future looks great for me and the club, and I’m really happy to be here.”

While Jawai is looking forward to the season ahead, he professed that the team are still stinging from the semis run against the eventual Champions, the Wildcats, where they fell just one game short of the Grand Final.

“We came close last year – we were there, and we let it slip.

“I feel like if we can have a same group of guys, we can do some damage. That’s another reason I returned - I didn’t want to build a culture somewhere else where I didn’t know what was in front of me. I know what to expect here, I’ve built a good relationship with Mike and it’s grown over the off-season.

“We’ve been doing individual workouts and speaking with him on the court has been great to learn how he thinks, and how I need to change my game for me to be better and for us to be more successful.

“It’s exciting to be around to be around the guys – myself, Mirko, Majok, Fab, Kouat and Mojave. We’ve stuck together during this COVID situation and we’re like a family.”

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans will reveal their next player signing tomorrow, 9:00am.