The starting five may have changed, but not the siege mentality of returning coach Derrick Washington.
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Launceston Tornadoes are set to face Bendigo Braves on Saturday night in a grand final re-match from last year.
Nearly the last piece of the puzzle in play, Washington is seeking redemption for the club's 119-96 title loss.
"As the coach, obviously I want to want to turn around that game," Washington said.
"It hurts. That's just my mentality, but these girls have that same mentality.
"The good thing is they feel like they're capable of being a top-four team in this league
"They want to prove that every week they play.
"Right from the beginning, they felt like they can make a run at the championship."
Bendigo has arrived in the new NBL1 competition much like where it departed the old SEABL season.
On the back of winning 23 out of 24 matches, the Braves have won their first five this year to sit atop the ladder.
But Washington will be encouraged that the home side's only defeat was to the Tornadoes in Bendigo amid a massive finals upset.
"It's going to be pretty good going into this weekend against the defending champs," Washington said.
"They're more than just a solid team - they're a well-oiled machine.
"So we've got to play our perfect game and try not to make as many mistakes as we did in our previous first three games at both ends."
The Tornadoes perilously enter the away trip with a 1-2 win/loss record, but Washington is far from panicking.
The American had calmly resurrected his new team's fortunes from 1-4 to win 14 of the next 17 regular season games and head to the finals campaign inside the top four.
This year's sluggish start has many similarities to the roster coming together late in the preseason last year.
"We had a lot of players in and out the first three games again," Washington said.
"Now we have those games under our belt, they know what we need to accomplish on the floor from their end and they know what I want from my end."
Washington said the Easter break was the perfect tonic to allow the new imports to settle into Launceston.
"All the girls are feeling refreshed, but our imports especially are locked and loaded now to get a couple of wins this weekend," he said.
"We've got to put together the same thing together back-to-back. So it's going to be a tough weekend and we'll see what we're made of."
The road trip ends in Melbourne's far eastern suburbs to take on Waverley Falcons.
The newcomers to the semi-professional game won on their debut, but have lost their last three by just one, three and six points each.
Washington has spent much of the week doing research on the unknown side.
"NBL1 is a good league - they got highlights, they got whole games," he said.
"So you can get footage of other teams easy enough.
"It's not a fact that we're too much worried about them being a new team.
"We just got to play our game. We really have to do to what we do best."
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