McLeod joined Cairns in the off-season as an assistant coach after six camaigns in charge of Illawarra.

The remnants of that tenure remain prominent in the current Hawks line-up.

Oscar Forman, Tim Coenraad, Larry Davidson, Tyson Demos and the injured Rhys Martin all played extensive under McLeod.

‘‘He knows his five players exceptionally well and knows their strengths and weaknesses,” Beveridge said.

‘‘I have always said he is the master coach. He always comes up with some special game plan so I can’t see it being any different with him being up there.

‘‘But we will just see what happens because it is a new team for us as well.’’

Off-season recruits Kevin Lisch, Kirk Penney, AJ Ogilvy, Kevin White and Cody Ellis are expected to make their regular season debuts in Cairns.

The Hawks caught a glimpse of what the Taipans had to offer in the preseason when Cairns finished runners-up at the NBL Blitz behind Melbourne.

Beveridge was impressed with what he saw.

‘‘I think Melbourne was the most talented squad [at the Blitz] but I thought Cairns were the best team just because they have been there for a number of years,’’ he said.

‘‘Obviously they have brought [Mark] Worthington in, who is a pretty good player, and [Markel] Starks who got co-MVP of the tournament, so they are good.

‘‘We know it will be tough [up there] but we are going in with a great attitude.

‘‘It is a free hit and to be honest there isn’t an expectation for us to win.

‘‘I am hoping there will be more pressure on them than us and that is the approach we are going to go with.’’

The road trip is the first step of many for the Hawks as they attempt to return to the finals picture after a disappointing 2014-15.

Early signs are promising, but Beveridge wasn’t jumping the gun before the season started.

‘‘What we are trying to do is to put a team on the floor that is competitive every night,” he said.

‘‘There is non negotiable behaviour with how we play in terms of intensive levels and how we stay together as a group through thick and thin.

‘‘We are not going to sit back and think if we don’t make fourth spot, then we fail. I think that is totally irrelevant.

‘‘It is the last thing I want to go in thinking, if we don’t achieve something then we fail.

‘‘We have to be better than what we were last year. 

‘‘If we achieve that then it will be a successful season.’’