Whether it was the leadership of captain Darcee Garbin, Steph Reid showing her class, Brooke Basham shining or the state getting behind them, Claudia Brassard couldn’t have hoped for more from the Tasmania Jewels' WNBL debut.
Brassard was confident in the squad the Jewels had put together, the coaching staff she had surrounded her and with the excitement from the community around their entry into the WNBL.
However, until the ball was actually tipped off and they were out there playing at MyState Bank Arena last Thursday, there's always that natural nervous energy wondering just how exactly it would all come together.
Particularly when point guard Steph Reid had a disjointed preparation and import centre Madina Okot is yet to arrive due to playing in the WNBA finals, but Brassard has nothing to be concerned about.
The Jewels started their life in the WNBL with the tremendous 103-90 victory in front of a sold out and raucous crowd against the Geelong Venom with Brassard nothing but proud of the all-round performance.
"I'm really proud of the effort, really proud of the contributions and every athlete that stepped onto the floor contributed whether that was defensively or offensively," Brassard said.
"You can see on the score sheet multiple different scorers for us and multiple people with five or six rebounds.
"It was really a group effort and when they started making that run in the second half, we dug a bit deeper and got connected and came out with some big shots when it mattered."
Brassard was part of some supportive home environments while part of championship success previously at the Townsville Fire, but she can safely say the atmosphere of 4000-plus Tasmanians for the Jewels' first game was something else.
"Playing in front of 4000 cheering, encouraging, supportive fans is amazing and it's not something that I've had many times in my career. So to have that in the first game with the Jewels I think just speaks to Tassie and the people that are here and how supportive they are. I thought it was unbelievable.
While Brassard had no way of knowing just how the Jewels would look out on the court together playing a real WNBL game together for the first time, or what their confidence levels would be like, she had full faith that they were competent to go out there and produce.
That competence extends beyond the playing group but to Brassard's assistant coaches Jack Fleming, Zoe Mesman and Matt Clarke as well.
As a result, she had full faith they would be able to go out and perform as they did first up.
"We talk a lot about competence over confidence, and we don't need to be confident, but we need to be competent," Brassard said.
"We know that we've done all the work so we took a moment to reflect on what these past six weeks have been and how hard everyone has worked.
"That includes the coaches and it's important to acknowledge. I don’t think there's any staff out there that works as hard as the staff I have and I'm so lucky.
"They're obviously very competent as well, but the work and hours they put in is incredible. Just relying on that and knowing that we've got all that behind us can give us confidence to go out there and play hard."
Darcee Garbin was an obvious choice as captain with the Jewels and because of their previous time together in Townsville, Brassard knew full well what she would provide.
Garbin started well with a block, offensive rebound and scoring the first ever points for the Jewels, and Brassard liked the inside presence she provided the Jewels against a Geelong team missing reigning Defensive Player of the Year Han Xu.
"I mean, I know how good and capable she (Garbin) is so it was not a surprise to me how she started and I think she played an amazing game," Brassard said.
"They couldn’t handle her inside and Darcee's known for her popping and shooting threes so it's nice to see her mixing it up and she's been working on that.
"That kind of led the way for us in the first half and then they had to find solutions around managing Darcee which kind of opened it up for our guards."
It wasn’t the preparation for the season that superstar point guard Steph Reid was hoping with her battling illness since returning from playing with the Australian Opals at the World Cup.
She only got to practice with the Jewels a couple of times as a result ahead of their first game last Thursday, but showed no signs of that out on the court delivering 17 points and eight assists while being a +13 in her 30 minutes of court time.
"Steph hasn’t really trained with us, she's only had two trainings so the way she played as well and some of her passes like when she found Darcee under the basketball were incredible," Brassard said.
"Credit to the bigs as well for catching those passes and they haven’t had that at practice either, but I thought the way that she picked apart some of their defensive stuff and stepped up after not having had much training with us and having a hard time recovering from sickness, I think that was a really good effort from Steph."
The Jewels also did all of that without import centre Madina Okot who is currently with the Atlanta Dream playing in the WNBA Finals against the Golden State Valkyries.
The Valkyries did win Game 1 but it's a best-of-seven series so Brassard would love to see her bring a championship ring with her before starting her WNBL career at the Jewels.
"Darcee will be happy when she gets here too, but Madina reached out to the team the day before the game and wished us all good luck which again is great around that connection piece," Brassard said.
"We hope she does really well and that Atlanta can win a championship in her rookie season in the WNBA, but for us she will obviously change some things and be an anchor for us defensively so we're looking forward to getting her."
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