The brotherly love driving Cairns' campaign

Cover image - Gordon Greaves

It’s a family affair at the Cairns Marlins this NBL1 North season. Kody and Ky Stattmann are suiting up together for the first time in their careers, and the pair of brothers is looming as one of the most dangerous one-two punches in the conference early in the campaign.

Kody is the eldest of the two at just 23 years of age, and has two seasons of NBL basketball with Brisbane and South East Melbourne under his belt. Ky has just turned 21 and has returned to the Marlins for a second straight season after averaging almost 20 points per game last campaign.

The Marlins have performed strongly in the early stages of the new season but will enter Friday night’s clash with Darwin off the back of a 23-point loss to the Townsville Heat.

Kody, who represented the North Gold Coast Seahawks in his last NBL1 campaign, says the drawcard of playing with his brother for their hometown club was too good an opportunity to pass up.

“It’s awesome, one of the main reasons I came back to Cairns was to play with my brother,” Stattmann told NBL Media.

“It’s always a lot of fun doing that, it’s only been two games but we’ve had a lot of fun already and I can’t wait for the rest of the season because it’s going well so far.

“I have all my family there, cousins, nana and poppy, everyone’s there. It feels a lot more comfortable, being home, and I find it a place I can really work on my game a lot more easily which is good.”

After an NBL season in which Stattmann found opportunities difficult to come by at South East Melbourne, he’s been a revelation in the early stages of this Marlins campaign.

Kody Stattmann from DEEP ?

He's up to a career-high 16 points ?

Watch live on ESPN via Kayo ? pic.twitter.com/rEbLzYqyqu

— NBL (@NBL) January 25, 2024

He’s only played in two of Cairns’ three games so far, and he was a notable absence in last week’s loss to the Heat.

He opened the season with an incredible 33 points, 14 rebounds, three assists and three steals against the Darwin Salties, before he dropped another 31 points against former side North Gold Coast, who featured Stattmann’s South East Melbourne teammate Matt Kenyon.

Stattmann may have ended the NBL campaign with the Phoenix with extensive time on court, but he only appeared 16 times across the NBL24 campaign – and played more than 10 minutes just eight times.

He says while the adaptation to being one of his team’s powerhouses has been jarring, he’s remained confident in his ability to impact games.

“It does get a little tough sometimes, during the year in the NBL you don’t get to have game reps so coming back into NBL1 and playing 40 minutes, 35 minutes at the start is a little bit tough,” he said.

“I think it just comes down to confidence and knowing you are one of the better guys in the league. I think you have to pay without any pressure on your shoulders, and it helps me out to tell myself that I am one of the better players out there or the best player out there.

“I keep that confidence in myself to be able to play the whole game and have guys trust me.

“I think our coach Kerry Williams having full faith in me, being able to trust me, and just being able to let me go and play the game I know how to play [helps].

“He gives me a long leash to do whatever I can to go and score the ball and that really helps with my confidence.”

Friday’s matchup with the Darwin Salties will be a repeat of the opening round stoush from which Stattmann’s Marlins took the victory – this time, though, it will be in friendly territory.

What a battle ??

Kouat Noi - 3??5?? points
Kody Stattmann - 3??3?? points @NBL1 action is just heating up ? pic.twitter.com/sjB4LloNzB

— NBL (@NBL) April 14, 2024

The Salties will have one massive addition to their ranks for this matchup though. NBL champion Sean Macdonald missed the opening round fixture, and has joined the talented group spearheaded by Kouat Noi.

“We stopped their main guys last time from doing what they do. Kouat’s always going to get up big numbers because he’s a big body down in the paint. I think bringing back in Sean he knows how to facilitate the team really well which they probably missed the first game,” Stattmann said.

“I think we have to limit him shooting threes because he’s been shooting the hell out of it as well. There are a couple of things we’re going to have to stop but I think we should be alright.

“I think sticking to our game plan of playing fast and getting up and down the court will really help us, especially against Darwin. Since they have some really athletic dudes we need to be able to rebound the ball really well and that’s one thing we did when we beat them.

“I think it’s just come out, play hard, hit them first and see how the momentum of the game goes, but it’s definitely going to be a good game. I’m excited.”

Cairns host Darwin tonight at 8:30pm AEST, streaming live via NBL1.com.au or the NBL1 App.