THE ROUND 4 action in the National Basketball League (NBL)’s 2025/26 fixture continues tonight, when the Cairns Taipans host the travelling Perth Wildcats at Cairns Convention Centre in a blockbuster Friday night encounter.

The Taipans were thumped by the Adelaide 36ers during their last home game up north, and will be eager to put on a stronger performance to kick off the weekend’s action and record their third win of the season to date.

However, in their path is an in-form Wildcats unit that has lost just one game so far during the 2025/26 fixture, and will be looking to snatch an impressive road victory to truly place themselves among the heavyweight contenders.

Cairns Taipans vs. Perth Wildcats

Cairns Convention Centre
Friday, October 10 @ 7:30pm

The Taipans have broken even from their first four games this season, and come into this clash sitting sixth on the ladder in what is proving to be an extremely competitive season, so a win here would be huge for the home side.

The big area of focus for the Taipans will be offensive production, given their slight tendency to fall short in this area through stages of matches. Their two losses have seen Cairns put up much lower scores than expected, so finding cohesion here is crucial to their chances of winning.

Since joining the team, million-dollar man Jack McVeigh has had a bit of a role change compared to his time in the NBL previously, being asked to have added ball-handling responsibilities due to a shortage of point guards in Cairns. Although it is taking some adjusting, it feels as if the former Grand Final MVP is set for a massive game in the near future, and it could be tonight.

The Wildcats have done extremely well to adjust to life without Bryce Cotton, winning two of their first three games and jumping into the top four in the standings as a result, despite the season initially holding a lot of uncertainty.

Perth has made the most of big name off-season recruits Mason Jones and Jo Lual-Acuil, and have seemingly found a winning style of play under head coach John Rillie, and are now among the best teams in the competition.

One of the big talking points to come out of Perth’s most recent wins was the performance of Rillie’s son Jaron, who has been an astounding +46 during his time with the team this year. He could be injected in the starting lineup in the coming games and truly take his career to the next level.