‘Spiritual leader’ Kenny to play vital role: Forde
Taipans coach Adam Forde has labelled back-up point guard Jarrod Kenny as the Snakes’ “spiritual leader” – a role that he says will be vital to the team’s success in the upcoming NBL season.
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Taipans coach Adam Forde has labelled back-up point guard Jarrod Kenny as the Snakes’ “spiritual leader” – a role that he says will be vital to the team’s success in the upcoming NBL season.
Kenny won back-to-back NBL championships in 2016 and 2017 alongside Forde at the Perth Wildcats, and played under Forde as interim coach of the Hawke’s Bay Hawks in the 2021 NZNBL season.
Forde said Kenny’s experience and leadership qualities would be brought to the fore in the new season.
“I think it was one of the first weeks I had when I was employed here when we did the re-signing of JK,” he said.
“I was over with JK in New Zealand at that point too and he brings so many intangibles – not only the things he does so well on the court, but also he’s always that spiritual leader for us off the court.”
Forde said Kenny’s leadership style was the perfect balance to that of star import Scott Machado.
“Scott plays the other half,” he said.
“He leads by example with what he’s able to produce and the way he sets the table for us offensively and defensively.
“They complement each other with different forms of leadership, especially in that point guard position, so having them both is going to be really vital not only to the team’s success, but they’re an extension of the coaching staff, so my success as well is going to be reliant on how well we all connect and interact.”
Kenny said being a leader was something that came natural to him, but that role was made easier by the calibre of players in the squad.
“We spoke about that, and I guess that’s kind of what I do anyway,” he said.
“I’m not playing big minutes or putting up a lot of stats, but I think my role is obviously that leadership, just making sure guys are travelling all right and helping them where I can.
“But with this group we’re pretty good. We’ve got a few young guys but a lot of them have had a bit of basketball experience and they know what it’s about.
“I’ll do the role but there’s not a lot to do.”
Kenny said it was an easy decision to come back to Cairns for a fourth straight season, with family and redemption the deciding factors.
“Myself and Ailbhe (Madden, Kenny’s fiancee), we love it up here,” he said.
“And just the way we ended last season and the results we had last year, I wanted to come back and redeem that.
“We’ve got a great support base up here with a lot of loyal fans and a lot of knowledgeable fans.
“I think we have the team, obviously it’s different to last year and the season before, but we do have the potential to be successful again and make a run at the championship.”
Taipans ‘pull the reins back’ on energetic Bul
If you heard random thuds coming through the walls of the Pacific Hotel over the past two weeks, Taipans recruit Bul Kuol wants you to know he is sorry.
The 24-year-old forward admitted he went a bit stir crazy in quarantine, including turning his room’s waste bin into a makeshift basket.
“I had a tennis ball and I would pretend that was a basketball,” Kuol said.
“I hope the wall that was on the right of me was an elevator wall because I was throwing the basketball at the wall and all kinds of stuff, so I probably annoyed a lot of people when I was there.”
He said the two-week quarantine period, his second since arriving back in Australia in April, was a challenge.
“It was tough going into it, knowing what I was getting myself into,” he said.
“It was terrible those first couple of days because it was like ‘man, I got to be here for 13 more days’, so that plays with you, but at the back end of it you start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, start to get optimistic and start prepping yourself to be out.”
Kuol emerged from his 14-day quarantine period on Sunday and joined his new teammates at the Taipans’ pre-season training sessions on Monday and Tuesday.
After being confined to his hotel room for two weeks, the Sudanese-Australian wasted no time in letting loose on the court.
“I got a bit excited and came in early and got some shots up,” he said.
“It’s so good to have the ball in your hands and just shoot hoops again because when you’re stuck in that quarantine room you’re watching NBA highlights, you’re watching your favourite players play and you just want to go shoot.”
But head coach Adam Forde, who was wary of his Kuol going too hard too fast, said staff had to “pull the reins back a little bit” with the 203cm forward.
“He actually came to the gym two hours before everyone else and put some shots up,” he said.
“I had to explain to him how player load management works and when you’ve been sitting in a room for two weeks and do too much, it just increases your chance of injury.
“Bul wants to to do more, and that’s great, that’s why we recruited him and he’s hungry to show his worth, but he has to understand that we know what he’s capable of doing and now it’s about us making sure we manage these guys correctly, so we don’t add him onto that injury list and suddenly he’s one of the guys on the other court that’s on our return-to-play.
“He’s enthusiastic and he’s happy to be here naturally, we just want to make sure that we’ve got him peaking at the right time of the year, and not too soon.”
Kuol, who joined the Taipans for his debut NBL season, said he trusted the coaches.
“They’re telling me to slow down, saying ‘you just got out (of quarantine), you just got out’, so I have to sort of take my time and just allow my body to re-adjust to playing basketball, running up and down and doing regular things again,” he said.
“Whatever they tell me to do, I’ll do it.”
The upcoming NBL season is scheduled to tip off on November 18.
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Originally published as ‘Spiritual leader’ Kenny to play vital role: Forde
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