TAIPANS coach Aaron Fearne says Cairns will chase former Victorian players hard after the withdrawal of the Melbourne-based Tigers and South Dragons left a glut of quality players in the basketball market.

Players including Olympians Mark Worthington, Chris Anstey and David Barlow will be available to teams in the new elite men’s competition if they decide not to play overseas next season.

The Taipans are likely to make Worthington a key target after they tried to sign him last year.

The 202cm forward eventually joined Brian Goorjian’s Dragons and helped the club win the NBL championship.

Worthington spent a season in Cairns with the Taipans Academy before heading to college in the United States.

"All those Melbourne guys are open to everybody. It’s no secret, we’ll go after all those guys," Fearne said.

"At the end of the day, those guys want to play and there’s only going to be eight teams and those two (Tigers and Dragons) played for the NBL championship (last season).

"They’ve got some quality and every team in this country wants it and it’s a pretty good opportunity to go and get some of those guys.

"If we can get them, then yeah, we’ll go after them hard."

Just when that will be possible has yet to be settled, with Basketball Australia still to award playing licences to the clubs in the elite men’s competition, which is set to start in October.

A new players’ agreement also has to be finalised before contracts can be signed.

Fearne and Snakes general manager Mark Beecroft are talking to several parties in the meantime.

"What we can do is keep talking to players and agents and develop relationships," Fearne said.

"There’s plenty of that going on, it’s almost worn its welcome out, guys are sick of talking to you.

"But when we get the green light to really go ahead, then we’ll go after it hard and try and get some stuff done pretty early and hopefully the rest of it flows on from there."

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