Opinion: 2010 season will test Steel's mettle

You would have to be brave to dismiss the Steel's prospects of reaching the ANZ Championships play-offs.

After all, the Invercargill-based team made the minor semifinal last year and has master coach Robyn Broughton at the helm again.

Broughton led the Sting to seven titles in 10 years and has built a reputation as one of the best coaches in the business.

She is bound to get the best out of her players again but the question is: will it be enough?There are good reasons to believe the Steel will struggle to repeat last season's effort with most pundits pointing to the absence of Donna Wilkins and Adine Wilson.

The pair formed a formidable duo for the Sting during an impressive reign which saw it win six consecutive titles.

Both were unavailable during the inaugural season (2008) but bolstered the squad's ranks last season.

The impact was obvious.

Wilkins' competitiveness rubbed off on the rest of the team and Wilson's experience and the all-round quality of her game was a crucial factor in the Steel's climb up the competition ladder.

While the players stepping into their shoes are fine athletes in their own right, it takes years to develop the sort of combination Wilkins and Wilson enjoyed.

The retirement of experienced goal keep Megan Hutton and Katrina Grant's decision to shift north to the Pulse has robbed the Steel of more of its depth.

Off-setting those losses, Megan Dehn returns and Magic and former Silver Fern defender Leana de Bruin has transferred south.

But while the starting seven looks solid, there is not a lot of experience on the bench with the likes of Emma Moynihan and Hayley Saunders in their debut season, and back-up shooters Julianna Naoupu and Jade Topia having had only limited court time.

The ANZ Championship is a long and physically demanding tournament, and sooner or later the bench gets tested.

That has to be a concern for Broughton.

Adding to that challenge, experienced defender Sheryl Scanlan is carrying a persistent calf injury into the season and Daneka Wipiiti and de Bruin are returning to top netball after giving birth late last year.

The Steel's last warm-up game would have done little to ease the nerves.

It was a dreadful display against an average Canterbury Tactix side.

The performance lacked urgency and the team looked fatigued from a long pre-season which saw it play 19 games in five weeks.

It was a stark contrast from the side which finished the 2009 season so strongly to scrape into the play-offs.

Tied on 16 competition points with the Queensland Firebirds, the Steel advanced courtesy of a superior goal percentage.

Arguably the Firebirds were the better side and could rightly feel a bit miffed.

They had to play the stronger Australian sides twice in round robin play while the Steel played its transtasman rivals just once, and it got to improve its goal percentage with considerably easier matches against the Tactix, Mystics and Pulse.

This year, the Northern Mystics have emerged as title contenders following a busy off-season recruiting.

They have assembled an impressive array of talent with Silver Ferns Maria Tutaia, Joline Henry and Larrissa Willcox, veteran midcourter Jenny-May Coffin and Jamaican international Althea Byfield joining the the Auckland-based franchise.

The Mystics and the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic shape as the two strongest of the five New Zealand teams.

That does not bode well for the Steel.

New Zealand sides have not found a way to win in Australia, which makes winning the derby matches critical.

The Australian sides appear to have more depth, and will probably set the pace again with the defending champion Melbourne Vixens looking impressive and the Adelaide Thunderbirds not far behind.

And watch out for the Queensland Firebirds.

They dumped coach Vicki Wilson after missing the play-offs and, with new recruit Natalie Medhurst partnering Jamaican Romelda Aiken in the shooting circle, they mean business.