Widely-tipped to finish in the bottom two of the competition, the Spirit are 2-0 after two rounds and playing a style of basketball not produced by Bendigo teams since the club's championship-winning days.

Even though the vast majority of the club is new to Bendigo this year, the Spirit's chemistry and "team" attitude is a major improvement on recent seasons.

The team looks like they genuinely love playing together and it shows on the scoreboard.

Everyone is playing a role, there's not an unhealthy reliance on one or two players to perform and, after being easy to score against at times in the past two seasons, the team is gritty defensively.

The impact on and off the court of key recruits Rebecca Tobin and Nat Hurst shouldn't be underestimated.

Tobin, the 31-year-old centre from the United States, destroyed Dandenong on Saturday night. Her presence at both ends of the court frees up reigning club MVP Nadeen Payne.

Veteran point guard Hurst is the general that keeps the group together.

She scores, she distributes, she makes life hard for opposition guards and off the court shows the Spirit's young players the training and preparation required to be a successful player in the WNBL. 

The Spirit have made a brilliant start to the season and still have import Barbara Turner waiting in the wings to make her debut in next weekend's road trip to Perth and Adelaide.

A 2-0 start doesn't make the Spirit championship contenders straight away, but after experiencing a few seasons with little success there is reason to be excited about the Spirit’s prospects this year.

A new home court, a new-look team and a new attitude – hopefully that leads to some new fans getting courtside to support the Spirit.

Adam Bourke