The irony is Southern might struggle to do as well as it has in the past two years.
"In the seven or eight years I've been playing this is definitely the best team we've had," Ashton said.
"But the league is just so strong this year. The standard of play is so high and the pace of the game is so fast."
The Southern Men suffered heartbreaking back-to-back losses in the opening weekend, losing to Canterbury 4-3 and to Central by the same score.
There was no shame in defeat, though. While Southern is stronger this season, Ashton said it was one of the best Canterbury sides he had seen, as well. The loss to Central was the classic game that got away.
"It was disappointing against Central, because we had an opportunity to win that game."
The losses have left Southern's title prospects precariously balanced. Southern plays a star-studded Auckland side today and with no easy fixtures, Ashton believes it might be a bit of a stretch to crack the top four.
"To be honest, all the teams look really strong. Northland got a couple of pastings, so we might be able to target them. And Midlands are not unbeatable."
Southern plays Northland tomorrow and Midlands on Wednesday. All of the remaining games are being staged at the National Hockey Stadium in Wellington.
The Southern squad was boosted by the arrival yesterday of Australian Liam Brown. He is a solid midfielder but more of an honest toiler than a game-breaker.
Fellow Australian and classy striker Adam Clifford pulled out of the campaign because of injury. He had been expected to have a tremendous impact for Southern, coach Dave Ross said.
"By and large, we were at full strength last weekend and go into it knowing what we are up against it," Ross said.
"Obviously, we'll hope to do as well as we can with what we've got."
The Southern Storm women's team have not won a game in the league since 2007 and started the 2011 campaign in disappointing fashion.
The Storm lost 5-0 to Canterbury in Dunedin on Saturday and followed that performance with a 7-3 loss to Central.
The Storm's best prospect of a victory this season might come when it plays Capital tomorrow, but today's match against Northland is likely to prove difficult.
Coach Mark Stafford said, while his side was well beaten, the team showed character to fight back from 6-1 down at halftime against Central, to win the second spell 2-1. If the squad can recapture that sort of form, it can be competitive.
"We've got to toughen up a little bit but we went into the tournament underdone," he said.
"We have to work on our structure for the future so we don't let that happen again.
"But I feel optimistic. With the way we played in the second half [against Central] we would match most sides.
"Hopefully, the girls will take the positives out of that game."
As far as expectations go, Stafford said his team was just looking for its first win.
"It is as simple as that."
