They hit the ground running by beating the unfamiliar Laurel Park not once, but twice, in a home double-bill at St Sampson’s High.
Saturday’s 46-34 and Sunday’s 55-43 victories have lifted them to top of their section of the league, which is aimed at teams which missed out on the main Netball South competitive structure this season and has 11 teams divided into ‘surf’ or ‘turf’.
Coach Heidi Rosamund had to take that after a few seasons of struggling to get wins on the board in South Division Two.
‘To say it’s our first couple of matches, it was a really successful weekend, and I’m really happy for the team,’ she said.
‘Really, really pleased. As a coach, I’ve been training with the girls since April, May time, and you get to know them.
‘This is a whole new team. Really happy that we got the two wins and maximum points.’
In Saturday’s match, Panthers took some time to stamp their authority, coming through quarter one leading 10-8.
They maintained this two-goal advantage to hit 19-17 at half-time.
Finally, they put in some lasting distance during quarter three, making it 34-25, and built on that further in the final stanza.
Vice-captain Millie Burchell – who would be absent on the Sunday – led by example in holding the defence together and so shared player of the match with sharp-shooting GA Marcie Elliott.
Sunday started in similar fashion as the home side edged ahead by two goals in the first quarter, making it 12-10.
This time they raced ahead in the second for a seven-goal lead – 39-22 – and kept that gap in the third.
A strong finish completed the double-header of victories as centre Charlotte Mullins and GS Ellie Roger shared out POM honours.
WD Daisy Le Page excelled on both days, leaving the visiting team to regularly rotate their WAs in a bid to shut her down.
Squad engine Amity Horton also put in some impressive performances across multiple mid-court positions.
The coach praised the mentality of the new-look team and how reactive they were to constructive feedback, together with working for each other throughout the weekend.
For the long season ahead, and with the prospect of Guernsey potentially hosting some play-offs at the end, she is hoping to keep up this momentum and genuinely contend.
But she is not getting ahead of herself.
‘It’s a difficult one to say,’ she said.
‘We’ve got 11 teams that all wanted regionals and did not qualify, and I’m sure there’s a few teams that are in this league that were probably a whisker away from qualifying.’
Regardless of whether they know their opponents or not, she added: ‘We need to bring our A game to every single match we play.
‘Being the Guernsey team, we don’t know what the other girls are capable of.’
