Her first season (2005) ended disappointingly, with the Storm finishing at the bottom of the competition table after some encouraging results in the round-robin.
The 22-year-old University of Otago student missed the next two seasons and upon her return helped the Storm to a winless season.
In her absence, the Storm did not fare much better.
It avoided last place in 2007 with a surprise 2-1 win over Auckland, but lost the battle with Wellington for the wooden spoon 3-0 in 2006.
But, as she pointed out, the only way is up for the National Hockey League perennial strugglers.
"We definitely want to improve and I think we've got a team which is going to work hard enough and has got the right attitude to do so," she said.
"We've all got the attitude that on our day we can win any game. Especially with a tournament format, that can really work in our favour. There are so many upsets at tournaments."
The wiry defender has taken over the captaincy from Vicky Clarke and is looking forward to the challenge of leading the Storm in its campaign opener against Canterbury at the McMillan Hockey Centre on Sunday.
"Being a defender, you are expected to take charge. So it's pretty easy to slot into the leadership from the back."
Wall has an impressive hockey resume.
She grew up in Manawatu and played for all the age-group representative teams, from the under-11s to the under-21s.
She made the New Zealand under-16 and under-18 teams and played for Central in the NHL before shifting down to Dunedin to attend university in 2005.
Hockey had to take a back seat for two seasons while the fifth-year law student got on top of her studies.
But she loves the sport and plans to continue playing when she moves to Wellington next year to work as a lawyer.
Storm coach Mark Smithells said Wall was just the sort of person who could inspire his side.
He rates his new captain highly and believes she has helped contribute to an improved team culture.
Whether that translates into better results is unknown, but Smithells thinks his side is capable of inflicting the odd upset.
"I'm quietly confident we can shake and rattle more than last year. If everything goes well, we can certainly take a few down this year."
Southern lost a pre-season game to Canterbury convincingly and university holidays made getting the squad together difficult, he said.
"We're probably short of a couple of hard games, perhaps. But we've established an Otago B team this year and had a couple of really good hit-outs against them," Smithells said.
North Harbour beat Auckland 3-2 in the final last year and both sides look strong again.
Midlands and Northland are more than capable teams, but Wellington appears to be the sleeping giant.
"They've imported two Germans who are both fantastic players, and they are paying an Australian coach significant money for six weeks to take them through the tournament."
