The midcourter was filled with anguish when she made the tough decision to leave the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic and head south to join the Steel.
The Magic was all she had known, joining the team in her first year out of school in 2014, captaining the side for the past couple of seasons, and notching up 123 games for the franchise.
Reflecting on the move a couple of months on, Winders is content with her decision.
"I never wanted to stay in one club for my whole career," Winders said.
"I just feel like if I had the opportunity to go somewhere else, I was going to take it.
"It’s definitely a hard decision to make because everything’s so comfortable, but you only know what you know.
"I didn’t want to get to the end of my career thinking ‘What if?’ or ‘What else could I have done?"’
In fact, the move has reignited her passion for netball — and learning a new position has played a big part in that.
Heading into her 10th domestic season, Winders has moved to wing attack, previously having played all of her career at wing defence and centre.
Initially, she felt thrown in the "deep end", but came to love the direct, creative nature wing attack offered compared to reacting to everything in defence.
"I’m just now figuring out it’s probably a position that I quite like."
She had the bonus of playing against some of the world’s best wing attacks and was tapping into what she hated them doing, while putting her own stamp on it.
The 27-year-old considered herself lucky to be learning a new position at this stage of her career.
"I don’t think many people in my position get to do that and I think that’s half the reason I’ve reignited my love for the game — seriously, I’m turning into a netball nerd."
After a good run during pre-season games, Winders did not want to turn up to Saturday’s opening game against the Mystics thinking she needed to be a "world class" wing attack immediately.
That was unrealistic. Instead, she wanted to gain confidence in her new bib and get to the end of the season continuing to love her netball.
"I think there’s a lot of pressure week one to be the best that you possibly can and I’ve definitely put that on myself in the past.
"Now I just want to be real kind to myself and grow as I go, and know that I’m always doing the best that I can with what I’ve got and learning each week."
The environment at the Steel has helped her grow. It was a "tight-knit group", spending time together outside of netball, and allowed everyone to express themselves.
It helped that it brought her closer to her husband, Josef, too.
The couple have been married for three years, but with her based in the North Island, and her husband travelling for work, they were yet to do the "husband and wife thing".
They had bought a house in Invercargill and were settling into their new lives together.
"We’re officially Southlanders pretty much now."
