The season launch of the Brisbane Broncos was a gathering of the true believers. Held underneath the towering copper dome of City Hall, with summer giving one last kick to the suited masses, a sporting goliath was once again starting to flex its impressive off-field muscle.
New Premier Annastacia Palaszcuk, who knows a thing or two about upset results, extolled the virtues of all things Queensland as the state mopped up from another natural disaster. Karl Stefanovic revelled as host, reflecting on his lot as a Banana Bender marooned south of the border. In the crowd, many of the city's biggest corporate and political hitters mingled with retired greats.
The mood was bullish, defiant even, and most were simply watching the clock until it was time for Wayne Bennett to rise to the pulpit. When he did, he preached a message of hope, patience and, if things go according to plan, rugby league redemption, assuming a club that was won six titles since the early 90s is in need of such a thing.
Even for those with little or no emotional ties to the Broncos, it was difficult not to be stirred by the gospel. Bennett commands respect wherever he travels yet soars in his hometown, where he has returned to restore order and vitality to the club he helped to painstakingly assemble.
Earlier in the night, he had met with Bernie Power, the brewer and first major sponsor of the Broncos. He hadn't sold a bottle of beer and we hadn't won a game, Bennett would quip, so it was a match made in heaven back in the late 80s.
"Nobody knows the battles we had to overcome to become the club that we are," Bennett told the hushed masses, before lauding his former stars, many of whom still view Bennett with a fatherly, almost religious reverence.
On Thursday night, after stints at St George Illawarra and Newcastle, the battle begins afresh, with the alluring scent of glory days wafting through the club. The Broncos start the NRL season at home against South Sydney, the defending premiers threatening to become a modern juggernaut as they chase elusive back-to-back titles.
The result - as do most in round one - should lead to pointless extrapolation on who will be brilliant/rubbish/mediocre for the remainder of the season but Bennett has done his best to temper expectation and subsequent reactions.
What he needs to see, as he returns to a gig he firmly believes is the most difficult coaching job in the NRL, are the seeds of progress. Others have had a spin of this Rolls Royce but many believe only Bennett can make the Broncos purr once more.
"I just want the start of a new era for us, to do a lot of things that will make us a top team, to start on that journey. I'm not saying it's going to take three years or one year. We started the Broncos back in 1988 and it took us five years to nail it. That's the price I'm prepared to pay here to get it right. And we will get it right," Bennett said.
"The result isn't going to make or break us."
The ingredients are promising. Ben Hunt and Anthony Milford may have the most upside of any halves pairing in the game, while new signings like Adam Blair are perfect Bennett projects, classy customers in need of just the slightest mental tweak and professional challenge. The loss of Darius Boyd (Achilles), though, does hurt.
Off the field, there had been a clarion call from club icons like Steve Renouf for Bennett to return and rebuild some of the pillars and values on which the club had achieved unprecedented success. Renouf and Gorden Tallis were among those who contended the very identity of the club had eroded on the watch of Ivan Henjak and Anthony Griffin.
Bennett has already instituted cultural change, making players pay for any lost kit and urging them to put down their mobile phones amid the team environment and do what they did back in ye olden days, ie talk to each other. It's so crazy it just might work.
The manifestation of it all happens amid 80 minutes of football and Bennett had no hesitation in suggesting they would do well to emulate the Rabbitohs, an outfit that plays to its strengths so well that Bennett would last year label them as 'predictable'.
He wore some flak for the very suggestion but said he hoped rival coaches would be saying similar things about Brisbane in the near future. He wants execution and repetition to reach such clinical heights that other sides can do little but watch and wonder.
"I got a fair bit of criticism for that statement. But the great teams are predictable. That's what makes them great. Everybody in that side knows what they are going to do and how they are going to do it," Bennett said.
"I hope that you can say in 12 months time that the Broncos are predictable, because it means we'll bring our 'A Game' every week. When they (Souths) do it so well and down pat, the opposition can't stop it. That's the sign of a good team."
The old master was in a generous mood the day before season 2015 springs to life. He lashed out at the NRL's integrity unit to gift reporters a bonus headline and put the focus on the referees: "What they do in round one, they won't be doing in round five."
And there was this, when asked about the expectation of Brisbane fans, who haven't been pleased about enduring almost an entire decade without another premiership party.
"My favourite line is when you start listening to the fans, it won't be long until you start sitting with them. I appreciate the fans, Broncos fans in particular, but I can't buy into any of that stuff. I know what I want to do. I have to have a clear focus. We start the process tomorrow."
