Home games at Cooks Gardens will be against near neighbours Horowhenua-Kapiti (August 30), Meads Cup runners-up North Otago (September 6), East Coast (September 20) and Wairarapa-Bush (October 4).
On the face of it, the task appears daunting compared to last season where Wanganui only had to travel to the South Island twice (Buller and North Otago), had one away game just an hour down the road (Horowhenua-Kapiti), and through the vagaries of ability across the squads did not have to face two of the best teams (Mid Canterbury and Wairarapa-Bush).
"If you keep yourself at the top of the table, you get a little more [advantage]," said incoming Wanganui coach Jason Caskey yesterday.
"When you've got three trips to the South Island, it's not probably what you'd wish for.
"Ashburton, it's one really tough game, you wouldn't ask for it, or even West Coast in Greymouth, another hard one in Timaru.
"A lot of times those trips take three days down on Friday, play Saturday, back on Sunday."
Caskey remembers just how long the Greymouth journey can be it varies on which local teams are flying in and out of Westport or Hokitika on chartered flights, as the New Zealand Rugby Union will often double up.
His last sojourn involved flying to Christchurch and then busing over three hours through Arthur's Pass.
But Caskey said that's just Heartland rugby the Coasters have to make similar trips every second weekend.
"You just get on and deal with it, it's definitely not an excuse.
"It won't be at the end of the year if we come up short."
Likewise, Caskey is not yet concerned that Wanganui have drawn all top five teams from last year Mid Canterbury, North Otago, Wairarapa-Bush, West Coast and South Canterbury.
Nothing could be better proof how much the compositions of the Heartland teams can change from year to year, especially with the influx of origin and import players, than the results of 2013.
"You look at it from the year before, we got beat by East Coast in the [Meads Cup] final, but the season just been they were bloody rubbish they got caught out on the imports," said Caskey of East Coast, who were fined $3000 and docked two competition points for fielding an ineligible player on the way to finishing tenth.
"You're never quite sure what you're going to be in for, you treat everybody with as much respect as anyone else.
"Horowhenua Kapiti could turn up and be a team that's completely different."
Caskey said Wanganui will likely have one mid-winter representative game in the buildup to the Heartland season, but it would not be in the last three to four weeks of the club competition so that local coaches could call on their stars leading into the Premier finals.
The opposition would not necessarily be another Heartland team.
"You want an [opposing] team of a similar sort of ability and level so it gives a chance for those guys to put their hand up," he said.
In 2014, both the competition fixtures against Horowhenua-Kapiti and Wairarapa Bush will also be for the Bruce Steel Cup.
Since Heartland started in 2006, the only other time Wanganui played game one away from home was in 2012 when they pipped Mid Canterbury 24-23 in Ashburton.
They will not play Buller, who beat them twice in 2013, during the 2014 round robin. Other teams they miss are Thames Valley and Poverty Bay.
