Despite a historic season — they will play in Sunday’s national league pre-final against Auckland — the side is yet to win in the North Island.
It is unbeaten on this side of the Cook Strait, yet has suffered hefty losses against non-playoff teams when travelling north.
The most recent of those was a 6-2 thrashing from Capital on Sunday.
It has led the team to look at what was different between that and its wins.
One factor — captain Elise Mamanu-Gray being away with the Football Ferns — will be resolved with her return today.
The other was travelling the night before the game.
While coach Terry Parle believed this was generally the best approach, it had not been working.
The accommodation provided had not been ideal, with heat and noise preventing the players from getting sleep.
Parle was not using that as an excuse, but it is a variable the team will look to control this week.
It will travel on game day, taking the 8.25am flight out of Dunedin.
That will enable the players to sleep in their own beds prior to the game, while still landing two hours before kick off.
‘‘I’m a great believer in best practice. You travel up the night before, you get settled in and then you go and play,’’ Parle said.
‘‘But it hasn’t worked for us.
‘‘We travelled up on the day when we played Canterbury and played our best game of the season. Without a doubt that was our best performance.
‘‘So when you look at these things, and again 90% of the game at this level is mentality, a team that is mentally strong will often beat the opposition, because you’re mentally stronger.
‘‘That’s what we’ve just looked at and said, ‘We’ll travel up on the day’.
‘‘If it works, fantastic, if it doesn’t, well there you go.’’
After winning just one game in the past decade, Southern has claimed three wins against quality opposition in the past two months.
The first of those came against Auckland in the competition’s first game, at the time an upset.
Since then the team’s star has risen, and it has claimed wins over perennial contenders Canterbury United and Northern.
That has brought a new mindset which has been key.
‘‘What the girls have done is gone out there and said, ‘We are now a competitive team’.
‘‘Their expectation is every time they go on the field is they don’t go out there not to lose, they go out there to win.
‘‘Talking to the girls, in past years they’ve gone out there to try not to lose, whereas now we’re going out to try to win.
‘‘If we follow our processes we can get that win.
‘‘But the nature of the girls going out there and trying to win, already that mental toughness is there.’’
