And while the score blew out in the end, the Steel was not that far off the Tactix in the first half.
It was the third quarter, often dubbed netball’s championship quarter, in which the damage was done.
Ten minutes into it, the Steel had scored only four goals to the Tactix 15 and the attackers struggled to find an entry to the shooters.
The southern side went on to lose that quarter 17-9 and never recovered to pull the scoreline back but did manage to win the final quarter 16-12.
"I thought the fourth quarter was great," Steel coach Reinga Bloxham said.
"I thought they worked hard defensively and on attack they were really good with the ball.
"Even quarter one and quarter two we lost those . . . but in moments of those I thought we were really sticking to our game plan.
"It’s when we shy away from our game plan that we just kind of fall to pieces.
"A little bit disappointing again in that third quarter but I’m just kind of trying to look at the bright things that we did well."
Eseta Autagavaia got the start at goal shoot in place to Saviour Tui, who was sidelined with an ankle injury she sustained last week.
Georgia Heffernan really stepped up in the circle and put up the bulk of the shots, finishing on with 24 from 28 attempts at 86%.
"I actually thought that Georgia Heffernan had a great game — I thought she played extremely well, stuck to the things that we’d been training this week which is great."
But it was her counterpart at the other end of the court, Te Paea Selby-Rickit, who was the maestro for the Tactix attack line.
Her shooter-to-shooter offloads to Aliyah Dunn were second to none, her work rate outside of the circle was massive and she made it hard for Silver Ferns selectors to ignore her for the Netball World Cup squad later this year.
The Tactix were fluid throughout the court, jumping out to a 7-3 lead early.
Once the Steel settled into its work, it slowly started to pull it back to trail 16-11 at the break.
There were some nice moments in the second quarter from the Steel — good triangles on attack, treasured possession and Georgia Heffernan continued to lead from the front.
But the Steel needed more defensive pressure across the court and the ball flew in to the Tactix circle too easily, helping the Canterbury side creep out to a 10-goal lead at halftime.
It was that dreaded third spell that hurt the Steel.
Jane Watson — playing her 100th game for the Tactix — and her trusty partner Karin Burger were a nuisance together in defence, confusing the space, snaffling any loose ball and when one swept, the other always had the other’s back.
Greer Sinclair, in her first year with the Tactix, has been a brilliant find for the red and blacks, wrapping up wing attacks and creating space for her circle defenders to have a fly at the ball.
The Steel just could not find any flow on attack and fell away in the middle part of quarter.
It came home stronger, with Renee Savai’inaea injected at wing attack, and Jess Allan entering at goal shoot.
The Tactix have been guilty of taking the foot off the peddle in final quarters this season — and this game was no different.
Kate Burley, a work-horse at the back, picked up ball, Savai’inaea — traditionally a defender — was patient on attack and had some great feeds and players worked more as a unit rather than in isolation.
That has been the story of the Steel’s season so far. It comes home with a wet sail but is yet to pull together a consistent performance across all four quarters.
ANZ Premiership
The scores
Mainland Tactix 58
Aliyah Dunn 40/40, Te Paea Selby-Rickit 18/23
Southern Steel 45
Eseta Autagavaia 10/13, Georgia Heffernan 24/28, Jess Allan 11/13
Quarter scores: 16-11, 30-20, 47-29, 58-45
