Returning to the drawing board after going down 2-1 to North Harbour in the opening round of the NHL, the onus was on the Northland side to front up against Auckland.
Losing prominent midfielder Ella Gunson in the warm-up to the Auckland match didn't help their cause, however it was a largely reinvigorated team which took to the turf - a win which saw Anna Thorpe pocket two goals and Carli Michelsen seal the deal with the third in the dying minutes.
"At practice during the week on Tuesday and Thursday nights we pretty much did one drill for four hours," Waetford said.
"It was just mainly reinforcing how we're going to play our attack and we did that really well. We felt that if there is any area you can expose Auckland, and that if there was any area they were going to be vulnerable, it was going to be their defence and back three."
Looking to back their surprise win up with another strong outing versus Midlands on home turf this weekend, Waetford is much more weary of the threat they pose.
"To me they are the favourites on paper, to me they have the team to do it," she said.
"Midlands is another kettle of fish because of their personnel. They have Black Sticks right through the layers of their team."
Despite how good Auckland, Midlands and Canterbury may look on paper, Waetford admits there is "great belief in this team ... that we can take that extra step and win it this year."
