CAIRNS Tapians president Denis Donaghy says the club will not be afraid to field an all-Australian line-up when Basketball Australia's elite men's competition tips off in October.

Representatives from the seven clubs that will compete in the new league met with Basketball Australia chief executive Larry Sengstock yesterday to discuss details of the competition, which will feature a 28-game home-and-away season.

Donaghy expects all clubs to be granted playing licences early next week with the job of signing players to start immediately after.

He said the Taipans would look to recruit Australian players first and would not sign an import if it threatened the club’s budget.

Donaghy said coach Aaron Fearne and general manager Mark Beecroft could draw on their experience running successful campaigns with the Cairns Marlins.

"We talked about it informally but the prospect of fielding an
all-Australian line-up doesn’t frighten us at all," Donaghy said.

"I know it’s a different competition but Cairns has won the ABA twice with an Australian team and that was with Aaron Fearne and Mark Beecroft coaching, so they certainly have the expertise.

"With a contraction of teams from last year there’s going to be a higher availability of talent.

"We’d be very confident of coming up with a side full of Australian talent that could challenge for the title."

Donaghy said the Taipans had
a "wish-list" of players and remained confident Cairns would continue to be a desirable destination.

"A lot of good players have gone through the Taipans in the past and we had a lot of good players last year and we think we’ll continue to be an attractive option," he said.

"A lot’s been said about the lifestyle we have up here. I’ll think there’ll be a number of players from last year (returning) but one that definitely won’t be is Martin Catallini.

"We’ve been in contact but he’ll be staying in Perth for family reasons and that’s been conveyed to us
directly and through his agent.

"That’s disappointing but he’s the type of player that we will be looking for with the level of professionalism and dedication he brought to the club."

Donaghy said the Taipans fully backed BA’s move of trying to find a Victorian-based team for the competition.

"Victoria Basketball has the highest number of registered players and it would be great to have them represented," he said.

Donaghy also said BA indicated that discussions with Fox Sports had pointed to television coverage being the same as
last season with not all games broadcasted.

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