But senior player Jamee Ellis said there was no reason why they could not claim some silverware again this year and felt the worst was behind them for this season.

Merewether were virtually untouched on their way to becoming the first team in WPL history to capture the minor premiership-championship double last year.

With that honour also came the weight of expectation to be high achievers again this season.

They stumbled in the season-opener, going down 2-1 to Adamstown.

They regrouped to power through their next three outings, in which they scored 15 goals.

But then they appeared to hit a bit of a slump, starting with a hard-fought 1-0 win over last-placed Mid North Coast and followed by a three-all draw with Warners Bay after holding a two-goal advantage with mere minutes left in the match.

Then they sustained back-to-back losses, going down 4-2 to Rosebud before being shock 1-0 losers to fifth-placed Thornton.

The result prompted some soul-searching in Merewether camp and some new team targets were set as a result.

“We set a goal last week before we played South Wallsend that we had 27 competition points left to get and we are going to take every one of them,” Ellis said.

“We got the three points against South Wallsend last weekend, so are down to 24. We are going start each game that way – this weekend we’ve got 24 to go.

“We’ve just got to keep a fit side on the park. Last year we didn’t have any injuries and I think that is why we did so well. We had that consistency on the park week in and week out and were very lucky.”

Ellis said they surprised themselves with their historic feats of 2015.

“We didn’t really expect to do as well as we did last year,” Ellis said.

“We have always just had the average run-of-the-mill players. None of our players have played in the Jets or the Emerging Jets.

“We’ve always been like that. We’ve never really had a star of the show, a target player that other teams have had to mark out of the game.

“We have always just had everyone at the same level.”

It turned out to in fact be their strength.

But this year they lost seven players from their championship-winning side.

“We had so many different players, we didn’t know how we were going to go and a few of us weren’t sure we wanted to commit to it again,” Ellis said.

“But we decided what have we got to lose; we did it last year when we didn’t think we could.”

Merewether chase more points when they host Mid North Coast at Myamblah Oval on Sunday.

Runaway competition leaders Adamstown play sixth-placed South Wallsend at Adamstown Oval tomorrow.

Rosebud added to their already potent attack this week with the signing of Lauren Allan.

Allan scored 25 goals in 16 appearances for Adamstown last season before she moved to the United States to take up a college football scholarship.

She misses the game tomorrow though as she had wisdom teeth removed on Wednesday.

Warners Bay are at home to Thornton at John St Oval tomorrow in the remaining round-12 hit-out.

WPL points table: Adamstown 28, Wallsend 18, Merewether 17, Warners Bay 14, Thornton 9, South Wallsend 5, Mid North Coast 2.