When a team finds some good form, the best thing it can do is to play again real soon.
On that score, the Steel has its wish granted. Fresh from a morale-boosting 52-48 win against the Adelaide Thunderbirds in Invercargill on Monday, the Steel play the winless Canterbury Tactix in the local derby in Christchurch tonight.
The combined Otago-Southland team has made a slow start to the ANZ Championship. So slow, it may have cost it a place in the playoffs in May.
Its saving grace may turn out to be a run of four home games to complete the round-robin stage. The Steel is a much tougher prospect on its home court. The franchise is unbeaten in Dunedin and has won 12 of its 16 games in Invercargill.
But before it can contemplate a long successful run on familiar territory, it has to get past the Tactix tonight and hope for the best against the Melbourne Vixens at Hisense Arena on Sunday.
The Steel has needed eight wins to reach the playoffs for the past two seasons and, using that benchmark, the Invercargill-based franchise can only afford one more loss.
Co-captain Wendy Frew was pleased with her side's four-goal win against the defending champions but acknowledged the Steel had left its run late.
"We always knew we were capable of stepping up and playing good netball like that but, unfortunately, it didn't come a few weeks earlier," she said. "But it is certainly a positive sign and there is still more to come."
What was most pleasing, perhaps, was that the midcourt and the attack end functioned in unison. Former Australian international Natasha Chokljat and co-captain Liana Leota provided some quality service for shooters Daneka Wipiiti and Paula Griffin.
Griffin's performances for the franchise have come under close scrutiny, with some critics suggesting her court craft was lacking. But the former international has improved her work off the ball and landed 21 from 23 attempts against the Thunderbirds in a superb display.
Frew hopes the performance against the Thunderbirds will proved to be a turning point.
"If we step up 10% from the Thunderbirds, we'll be right to knock over some of the bigger teams when it really counts at the end."
The Tactix are struggling at the foot of the table with five consecutive losses this season.
Coach Helen Mahon-Stroud has hinted it is time to make some changes to the line-up following the heavy 65-50 defeat against the Vixens in Melbourne. So that is bound to be a source of motivation for some of the senior players.
It will also be the Tactix's first game in Christchurch since last month's earthquake.
"They are certainly going to get up for the game. They've had a pretty emotional month and I expect they will come out firing. If we start well we should be all right, but we can't let them get their heads up."
