But this Southern Steel team is now humming along quite nicely.
The side has locked up a home preliminary final and carries a four-game winning streak into its final round-robin game of the ANZ Premiership.
That game — against the Northern Stars tomorrow in Auckland — may appear meaningless. However, if the Steel is to keep on the trajectory it has been on, a big performance is needed.
"It sort of drives that confidence and that belief in the team," coach Reinga Bloxham said.
"Heading into those critical games it’s good for the players to feel that they’re working really hard together, that they have those connections and those combinations."
That confidence has been plain to see lately. The Steel has found a new life after back-to-back losses against the Mainland Tactix and Northern Mystics.
Earlier there had been a 31-goal drubbing from the Central Pulse.
It would have been easy to go into panic mode. However, Bloxham said rather than panicking, a review of the side’s processes helped it gain some clarity.
"You have to make sure you’re bringing something new all the time.
"Not that we just think it will happen, but we had to really focus on the things we wanted to get out of the game and what sort of game we wanted to bring on the court."
Bloxham, a meticulous planner, had targets throughout the season and the slow start was not altogether a surprise.
The side had been without key players for its preseason while they were away at the Commonwealth Games. That had made for a disrupted start and while the team had not been where she hoped through the middle of the season, it was now clicking as she expected.
Lessons had been learnt from the losses and combinations had become stronger.
It was all part of the pursuit of constant improvement.
"Something that’s been a big drive for our season, last year and definitely this year, is each time we hit the court we try to be better than last time we were on there.
"Just really striving for that 60-minute performance this year is a really key factor for us.
"We know we didn’t start off the best and then we had that patch in the middle, so trying to get that consistency throughout the whole game and throughout everyone’s game has been really important."
Earlier in the week Bloxham ruled herself out of applying for the vacant Silver Ferns coaching job.
Just like the players, getting to that level was always in the back of her mind, she said, although for now she was fully focused on the Steel and learning as much as she could as a franchise coach.
ANZ Premiership
Auckland, 4.35pm tomorrow
Southern Steel: Wendy Frew (c), Gina Crampton, Shannon Francois, Kate Heffernan, Jennifer O’Connell, Te Paea Selby-Rickit, Olivia Bates, Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit, Courtney Elliott, Abby Erwood.
Northern Stars: Maia Wilson, Ellen Halpenny, Paula Griffin, Grace Kara, Anna Thompson, Kirsten Hurley, Kayla Cullen, Olivia Coughlan, Holly Fowler, Kate Burley, Christina Oscar, Ama Agbeze.
