Former Cairns Marlins’ star, Joel Khalu, highlights hoop dreams for Far North, the Pacific and beyond
Providing elite Pacific Island talent with a Cairns sporting hub can unearth a new generation of stars and turn a modest cottage industry into a top tier destination for athlete development, a former Cairns basketball coach says.
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Providing elite Pacific Island talent with a Cairns sporting hub can unearth a new generation of stars and turn a modest cottage industry into a top tier destination for athlete development, a Far North basketball coach says.
Former Cairns Marlins point guard Joel Khalu has quietly turned himself into one of the nation’s best basketball mentors, working with junior state and national teams as well as serving as an assistant coach in the NBL.
But before he stalked the sidelines for the Illawarra Hawks, the former sharpshooter spent six years play-calling for the Papua New Guinean men’s national team.
“There were players coming from remote villages,” Khalu recalled recently of his time in the Pacific.
“Seeing them respond to the experience of playing in front of as many 3500 fans in Port Moresby, the nation’s capital, was amazing.”
The challenge for rising stars in the Pacific is finding rivals that will raise their level of play as they progress through the junior ranks, the longtime coach said.
“The competition isn’t consistent enough to help them go onto higher levels,” Khalu, who is currently mentoring the Mackay Meteors’ NBL1 squad, said.
“But there’s definitely talent there. Like a lot of Pacific countries, there are a lot of athletic prospects.
“The big thing is harnessing those athletes in a high performance environment.
“In Australia, we get that week-in, week-out whereas PNG doesn’t have that.”
With the Australian federal government flagged to financially support a PNG NRL team, now was the time to build on Cairns’ cultural and economic links with its northern neighbours through sport, Khalu said.
“Cairns makes sense as the closest international port and we did that during my tenure (in PNG) but doing it at a younger age where a younger athlete can be spotted is the next step,” he said.
“Cairns being so close to PNG already has a really deep connection culturally to the nation.
“It’s the main place where any linkages could happen and there’s a support network here within the community and less of a cultural barrier than elsewhere.”
Khalu, who also held the role of CEO of the Basketball Federation of Papua New Guinea, coached the PNG men’s national team to a gold medal at the FIBA Melanesia Basketball Cup and has won multiple state league championships as a player and coach.
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Originally published as Former Cairns Marlins’ star, Joel Khalu, highlights hoop dreams for Far North, the Pacific and beyond
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