GARY Boodnikoff shakes his head in disbelief when reminded he's now one of the Taipans' old hands.

To Boodnikoff, it seems like just yesterday he arrived in the Far North from the disbanded Victoria Giants, but the talented forward slipped quietly past Kane Oakley late last season to sit in third place on the club’s alltime games list.

Pictures: Cairns Taipans 2009-10 

Boodnikoff has now played 160 games for the Taipans, his tally trailing only foundation player Aaron Grabau (297) and longtime captain Anthony Stewart (223).

And with five new players arriving in Cairns this season, Boodnikoff is a key to helping stabilise the group. It’s not something that seems to have heaped pressure on the 30-year-old, though.

In fact, Boodnikoff believes the new line-up has added a depth that has not been available in his time at the club.

"I think we’ve got a group of guys where we don’t rely on one or two guys every night," he said.

"I think we’ve done that in the past. If one or two guys haven’t had a good night, we’ve struggled.

"Now it’s anyone.

"It’s Rich (Melzer), Skip (Mills), Dusty (Rychart). I can have a good game, Phill (Jones) can have a good game, Ian (Crosswhite) and everyone’s scoring.

"If we get three or four guys in double-digits, it’s going to be a good night."

Underlining Boodnikoff’s point, the Taipans have had a range of contributors in their opening three games.

Rich Melzer won player of the week honours for his match-high 23 points and seven rebounds in the Taipans’ win against Perth on Saturday night and captain Phill Jones top scored in his round one return to New Zealand.

And Jones, Boodnikoff and Skip Mills tipped in 16 points each in the opening home win against
Adelaide.

But Boodnikoff knows the task against the Gold Coast tonight will be tough.

"They’ve just got quality players and Joey Wright gets his teams to play hard, it’s going to be a tough game," Boodnikoff said.

Boodnikoff has been hitting his shot sweetly this season and while he is known primarily for his outside shooting, his hustle in defence is also exceptional and will be called on extensively this season.

"It’ll be a defensive game," Boodnikoff said.

"I think the defensive game (tonight) is probably more important than our offensive game.

"If we’re on defensively and we can get the ball off defensive rebounds, we can run and that’s how we’ll score.

"It’s always hard when you’re taking the ball out of the net and they’re setting up in a press and you’ve got to get the ball down the court in your offence.

"But if our defence is strong as a team, we can get off our rebounds, we can go."

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