Auckland claimed the National Hockey League title with a 1-0 win against rival North Harbour yesterday.
But the big news in the south is the Southern Storm made some progress this season.
The perennial wooden-spooners avoided playing off for seventh and eighth with a 2-1 win against Capital on Saturday. It played Central in the playoff for fifth and sixth yesterday and lost 2-1.
While sixth place in an eight-team competition is not a particularly stellar achievement, the Storm has really struggled to compete in the past - and not so recent past, either.
Southern was thrashed 9-1 by Canterbury in round two and the signs looked bleak.
But coach Rod Rzepecky said his team demonstrated character with impressive efforts against Northland and North Harbour - both games were level at fulltime but lost in a shoot out - and its surprise win against Capital.
''I actually thought it went pretty well,'' he said.
''We stayed positive when it would have been pretty easy to capitulate. The team wanted to do well and we got stuck in.
''We always had the goal of getting fifth, so we come up a little bit short. But within the camp we were pretty confident we could get there.
''We had been building nicely throughout the week. We pushed Northland ... and we pushed Harbour who had been together for three months.''
One of the biggest hurdles Southern faced was developing some team unity. With so many players based outside Dunedin, it proved impossible to mount a pre-season of any note. Many of the players met for the first time on the morning of the opening game against Auckland.
A proper pre-season is a must for Southern if it is going to be more competitive in the future. But Rzepecky believes there is potential for improvement.
''I think we are slowly getting there. If we can be better prepared then there is no reason why we can't be top four. We're not that far off.''
Goalie Ginny Wilson was outstanding, Sophie Wickens led the side well from the midfield and Tessa Jobbs and Courtney Ross also competed hard.
''A lot of people stepped up and grafted away but those four were the standouts.''
The Storm, though, let itself down with some basic mistakes at crucial times and the team lacked some ''killer instinct''.
''We created a lot of opportunities but we didn't have that killer instinct striker up front and didn't really take them as well as we could have.''
