For her players, the creative streak provided by coach Noeline Taurua was a decisive factor behind Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic's breakthrough win in the ANZ Championship netball grand final.
Four years of disappointing campaigns had left not just stalwarts Irene van Dyk, Laura Langman and Casey Williams empty-handed but also their popular coach.
Challenged in the extreme, the equally long-serving Taurua embarked on a new course of action when their 2012 looked set to implode four weeks after it had started.
From that point, the Magic mentor provided the glue that held things together and kick-started the team's dramatic 12-week unbeaten run to the grand final.
``This is a massive result for Noels (Taurua),'' captain Langman said. ``She's the backbone of our franchise.
No campaign is the same from her, she continues to be innovative and we finally got the recipe right.''
In some ways, the 12-week crusade of just getting her team, against all odds, to the grand final last weekend, was sweeter than lifting the trophy itself.
``I'm really proud and that's because of the journey we've been on,'' Taurua said.
``To win the ANZ Championship is obviously the pinnacle of the season and we are measured by where we are placed on the table.
However, for this team, what we've been through is the real highlight. How the girls have held themselves and the character that they have shown, that's an equal, if not, better feeling.''
After opening their campaign with a disastrous four-game losing streak, Taurua's credentials were widely maligned and she was quick to take the initiative.
The team had no choice but to look inward, the conclusions cutting across the grain of some long-standing Magic values.
But on court, the dramatic change of mind set was there for all to see, the team going on to produce a better brand of netball than in the four years previous.
``Team culture and our family values have always been one of Magic's strengths but that doesn't win you games,'' Taurua said.
``A performance and winning culture had to be introduced into that mix.''
Taurua has learnt plenty after five years in the hot seat of the semi-professional era and that accumulated experience was put to good use in what was probably her most difficult season.
The cash-strapped franchise had the smallest support staff of any of the 10 teams and without an assistant coach, Taurua carried a big load.
Always accommodating with her time, Taurua provided the entertainment at the pre-match function for sponsors and special guests at home matches.
Delivering a speech and question and answer session, the coach would then head back to her team for their pre-match preparation ahead of the game.
``At times it was bloody hard and I wouldn't recommend it,'' she said.
``But I knew how it was going to be from the start and that was incorporated into our season plan.
In some ways, it was probably one of the things that made us special and really tight as a team unit because we all had to share the load.''
The affable, easy-going and not always conventional mother of five is a firm favourite with her players and franchise officials. She is the first to acknowledge life can be fickle for a coach but has learnt to live with that.
``Maybe two or three years ago criticism did affect me but it doesn't anymore,'' she said.
``You've got to take the good with the bad but be very clear about what your direction is with the team and where you're taking them to so that you're still strong in your own beliefs.
``I've grown in that respect, I don't get emotional now about what other people say. It is part of the territory and part of the learning I've been able to come through and get out the other side.''
Her great drive as a coach is having the opportunity to develop a player as an individual and get them in a place where they can gain higher honours.
``That's huge and it's a big buzz for me. And secondly, to win . . . the wanting to win and to get better are big draw cards as well,'' she said.
After five years with Magic at trans-Tasman level and five years in the National Bank Cup competition, it has been a long haul for Taurua to reach the most defining of results.
But she remains philosophical of her journey.
``It has been said that it takes 10,000 hours to be a master of what you do and this is my 10th year, so I think it's just been learning from all the experiences I've had and that I was really clear about the planning and what I wanted to do this year and really went out to make that happen,'' she said.
``It doesn't just happen. You don't go to university and learn Coaching 101, you only learn that stuff on the job and that's why you've got to be able to take the good with the bad, learn from it and look at how you can better yourself and the team you're coaching the next year.''
Animated and demonstrative in her team talks during games, Taurua's personality regularly bubbles to the surface in the heat of the contest, as attested during the grand final when in an unprecedented move she spent the entire last eight minutes on her feet with the rest of the bench as she willed her team home.
As with the previous 12 weeks, her face told the story after the final whistle, the joy pure and unrestrained.
``Once again, I just think that's a part of me growing and having the ability to express myself and be confident in myself,'' she said.
``It's the same as the players really&we follow along the same lines where you're not scared to do anything that is seen as out of the norm, that you can be yourself which is defining the values of what we want to be.
``I'm not going to live by double standards just because I'm the coach. I'm not really the sort of person to sit on the side-line like a dead duck and show no expression when inside I'm bursting with expression.''
