The word is Harrison Nash as the Brett Angell-coached Bay franchise kick off their ASB Premiership season against Auckland City tonight.
The 7.35pm kick off at QEB Stadium, Auckland, will be televised live on Sky TV (pop-up channel 55) so fans can make their own deductions on Haviland's successor who some will swear uncannily resembles his predecessor in some respects if pre-season matches are anything to go by.
"I'm enjoying playing at the back. I get to see everything happening in front and where players need to be," says the 21-year-old Aucklander who stands at 1.8m in his debut in the national summer league.
The Three Kings United player, who isn't shy about fulfilling the portfolio of a defensive midfielder, "didn't get a look in" at Auckland City or Waitakere United because of a plethora of talent.
Consequently Nash snapped up the opportunity to ply his trade in the Bay when Angell invited him to trials for last summer's losing finalists.
It helped with the transition that he was familiar with fellow Aucklanders Zane Sole and Jade Mesias in Bay's 2015-16 squad.
The enormity of the task in facing Auckland City not just tonight but in any other round isn't lost on Nash or his teammates.
City's resume doesn't need defining but here's a brain teaser - last year's best club in the world were Real Madrid and behind them was San Lorenzo.
So who were the third best?
"It's a big challenge for us but it's also a good opportunity for our team who have new faces," he says, emphasising the need to push on to be "one better" than last season after the Bay franchise's historic maiden grand final appearance.
Under new captain Finlay Milne, Bay United aren't too daunted by the prospect of taking on City's predominantly foreign legion.
"We also have quality players in Hawke's Bay United who train day in, day out," says the former Auckland City and Waitakere youth player who was once represented in the now defunct Auckland/Manukau outfit.
"We have the ability in our team to go on to beat them so we'll be all right."
Against all odds last summer, Angell wove his magic to muster players from overseas and outside the Bay to take them within three points of making the cut to the O-League.
Team Wellington pipped them by three points into second place in the round-robin stage despite failing to make the grand final.
Auckland City are coming off a don't-argue 4-0 victory over Waitakere United last week.
While Bay United's training at Petane Domain has been going well Nash reckons the squad requires a few more sessions to help lock in their cohesiveness.
A centre-mid as a youngster, Nash found himself in the centre-back role at Waitakere City under the tutelage of Chris Turner and Paul Hobson (Birkenhead first coach) at the age of 15.
Angell's full-press defence and counter attacking style of play isn't totally foreign to Nash.
Besides he's open to different philosophies and keen to implement Angell's game plan.
The ambidextrous Beefeater isn't the fastest defender on the paddock but the bloke who played behind Wellington Phoenix striker Roy Krishna knows what it takes to keep former Bay striker Sean Lovemore in check.
What he lacks in pace, he makes up with vision.
"I can read the game even if I'm not that quick."
The glare of the TV cameras, he feels, won't bother Bay United, either.
"It's my first time on national TV," Nash says but just don't be disappointed if he doesn't sport a snazzy hairdo.
