It had been 652 days since the Southern Steel last lost a game but in a replay of last season’s final, it was Te Wānanga o Aotearoa Pulse who came out victorious.
The new generation of netballers are coming through.
"It's good to have choice and those young ones firing so early. It's a great start. There's more to come,” Pulse coach, Yvette McCausland-Durie says.
McCausland-Durie is happy with the her team’s current performance, and is unapologetic about the goals that she has in place for her team, seeing her team’s youth as an advantage.
"Like every team in this competition we've set our number one goal is to make the grand final and to win the ANZ Premierships, so we're doing everything we can to make sure we're in the right place," she says.
The league's youngest shooters, Aliyah Dunn and Tiana Metuarau shone in last night's clash, with shooting stats at 91% and 95% respectively.
“Both Aliyah and Tiana have had a good amount of time in the pre-season playing together, so they've got a really good connection. They made that work. They are very patient, they keep the game simple and stick to the structures really well,” says McCausland-Durie.
Dubbed as the premierships youngest team, the Pulse are proving that age isn't everything, giving their young players plenty of opportunity for growth throughout the court.
"All of them have been around the scene playing high profile netball for a while," says McCausland-Durie, "The biggest thing is that they're confident they've learnt. We've used the pre-season well, they've made good connections and our job's really just to keep them confident and remind them of the little things that they can do better but just continue to build them".
Wrapping up round one will be a match between the SkyCity Northern Mystics and the Silvermoon Tactix on Wednesday at the Trusts Arena in Auckland.