Coach Paul Strang knows any external assessment would wonder whether the euphoria of the back-to-back titles meant eyes were taken off the first-class ball. He denies that.
"We made sure we were grounded in how we approached it," he said. "We weren't going to be satisfied winning one game, or one trophy. Each game was looked at on its merits so it was hell of a disappointing.
"We believe we had the personnel, we just didn't do it right, but at no time was it a case of getting ahead of ourselves."
Strang acknowledged the difficulty of any province achieving a domestic clean sweep.
For one thing "you have to be on top of your game for four to four and a half months".
"It's a very hard thing to do. It's about maintaining an intensity throughout the season and having the playing stocks to do a bit of everything. You've got to have your depth sorted so when you lose players to the Black Caps you have adequate replacements and you need key players in each competition to stand up."
Qualifying for the Champions League meant an earlier than usual start for the Auckland squad. The upside is the levels of fitness, and having spent a week in Napier on grass pitches helped. But it means ensuring there's no player burnout towards the end of the summer around the time Auckland will be hoping to be challenging for the Plunket Shield.
Auckland will be without international seamer Daryl Tuffey, probably until next month as he recovers from an operation.
One of the keys for Auckland this season will be how well a group of players who have become established over the last three or four years perform. Batsmen such as Anaru Kitchen, Jeet Raval and Andrew de Boorder need to flourish; Colin Munro to build on a decent limited-overs season last summer, big-hitting Colin de Grandhomme to find his touch; and the bowlers to share the load.
Test seamer Chris Martin (31 wickets at 22.74) and left arm spinner Bruce Martin (25 at 26.88) were fourth and ninth respectively on shield averages last season, while Michael Bates picked up 20 wickets.
But the batting was at times desperately poor, never more so than when rolled for 46 by Otago at Dunedin in March. De Boorder's 646 runs at 35.88 and Kitchen's 569 at 37.93 had them fifth and 10th on aggregates, but Auckland did not have a single player in the top 25 averages, apart from test bowler Kyle Mills' inflated 87 from only two games.
Auckland start against Northern Districts in Whangarei, visit Rangiora and Lincoln to play Canterbury and Wellington (six of the first nine games are being played at Lincoln or Rangiora) and host Central Districts before switching to one-day mode early next month.
Elsewhere new faces are popping up for the opening round. Otago have the biggest - and tallest - signing, in England quick Steve Finn, who is here on a four-game deal. Scott Kuggeleijn , 19-year-old fast-bowling son of former international Chris Kuggeleijn, will make his Wellington debut against Central Districts on Monday. Canterbury have Henry Nicholls, next year's New Zealand Cricket young player to Lord's while Northern Districts have high hopes for young left arm spinner Mitchell Santner.
The 50-over competition was yesterday renamed the Ford Trophy for this season.
