KEY POINTS:
Only two Breakers players have seen everything from the team's birth to the present day: Paul Henare - who joined with Tall Blacks Pero Cameron, Phill Jones and Aaron Olson in 2003 - and Mika Vukona, who was then a junior development player.
Henare is now heading for the 150-game mark in the ANBL and Vukona cracked a century in their last contest, just the third Breaker to do so. The other one is Olson, who left at the end of last season.
It's been a long, tough and at times dispiriting road for Henare. But now the 29-year-old point guard feels the best he has since being signed.
"There's been a lot of frustration over the year," he says, with player and coaching changes stalling any momentum.
"So it's pretty cool being where we are now, having seen the club grow up. We have to take a lot of pride in coming through all that adversity.
"We spoke at the start of the season about having a bit of a swagger, a bit of arrogance about us - not being arrogant but having confidence in ourselves and our ability. I think we've earned that now."
It's so much better sitting in a play-off position than sitting outside it at season's end, Henare says. "We have everything to play for - in past year's it's been 'play for pride' and 'play for next season'.
"Well, bugger that, everyone wants to be in the post-season."
He says the experience brought by Aussie ANBL veteran Tony Ronaldson as well as that of returning Kiwis Phill Jones and Kirk Penney have had much to do with the improvement.
Henare is no longer captain, instead they have a leadership group which he finds an improvement too.
"The pressure is off me, sure, but I quite like the idea. Everyone speaks up when they feel it necessary."
There is also more depth; more players who have gathered significant game-time. "We've been able to step up when necessary. At Cairns, which is always a difficult place to win, Tony Ronaldson was crook and played about three minutes but we got up to win, that was massive. We've coped with losing both imports.
"You're always going to get injuries and disruptions but they don't knock us like they used to."
It's very easy to find reasons for having lost or even reasons not to win in the face of adversity, Henare says.
Continual player change is an easy scapegoat. "We don't do that now."
He says Penney's signing for two more seasons was a big vote of confidence in the rest.
"He's one of the best in the league and to have him back us like that is great. I think it's because he's enjoying himself and he thinks we're going to get better too."
Coach Andrej Lemanis' game structure is firmly cemented in place now and the Breakers will take an edge into 2008-09 as a result, Henare says. "We've got four Americans to choose from next season," he says of the two injured players and their replacements. "Like I said, I think we're in a pretty cool place right now."
