How to fill them, not so much.
The Southern Steel is on the hunt for at least two, possibly three, new shooters for next season.
That is the main area the side is short on as the ANZ Premiership contracting window opens today.
Neither Jennifer O’Connell nor Georgia Heffernan would be available, chief executive Lana Winders said. They were unlikely to recover in time from serious knee injuries.
The Steel would continue to support them with their rehabilitation so they would have a chance at the 2022
team.
For next year, that would mean looking into alternative options.
"So that means we look into our Beko team, and we think about the players that stepped up for us in 2020 in the shooting area. We’re looking very hard at them," Winders said.
"We’re also looking at options external to the Steel."
Among those to step up were youngster Kiana Pelasio, dubbed by Winders as an "exciting prospect for the future".
The side’s other shooter had been Trinidad and Tobago import Kalifa McCollin.
Filling a shooting spot with an import is a route the Steel has taken nearly every season.
However, Winders admitted the Covid-19 situation around the world would be a factor in whether it could do that next year.
That would develop over the coming days and weeks.
The teams had only been able to talk to their own players until today.
For the Steel, that had meant getting feedback on how they found the season and their aspirations going forward.
Winders said she had been getting plenty of positive feedback and players indicating they were keen to come back.
It had been a tough season given the amount of travel involved with Covid-19 changes.
That had been tougher than players had thought it would be and Winders felt she was getting a better sense of that now from the player meetings.
Despite that, she said the team had responded well to the adversity, even if the results were not always favourable.
"I think what I’m hearing from the players was that they are generally quite proud of themselves," she said.
"And so they should be, for embracing a really difficult season structure — embracing it as much as they did and giving it their best shot.
"There were some exceptional challenges in the structure of the season for the Steel.
"But they didn’t flinch from it. They accepted the way it was going to be.
"They just went hard to put the best performance they could out there."
