KEY POINTS:
As the saying goes, it doesn't take a brain scientist to figure out where the Chiefs went wrong last year.
Losing their first four games certainly didn't help, while having the fourth-worst defence in the competition rather undermined a team with the third-most potent attack.
"We need to tighten up a little bit there," coach Ian Foster said of the 321 points his side shipped, perhaps understating the problem a touch.
Foster also agreed a better start was needed. With the team's first seven games of this season in New Zealand and five of them at home, how could he not?
Foster was in confident mood ahead of tomorrow night's season opener against the Blues. His bottom line: last year was last year, and every year is different.
But there is no escaping the fact that the Chiefs are the only New Zealand franchise not to have made a Super rugby final.
"We want to go out and win this championship like everyone else and we work hard to do that," he said.
"Sometimes you have got to put stats in perspective. If you look at the New Zealand teams over the last four years, only the Crusaders have done really well. It ain't an easy playoff to get into. It just shows you the small margin of error. You just have to keep pushing and believing in what you are doing."
And Foster does believe. Now in his fifth year in charge of the Chiefs, he feels the franchise is in the best shape since his reign began with its first and only semifinal appearance in 2004.
"Every year you have to start almost from scratch. That is one of the things I am most proud of with this franchise. We have probably lost the most players over the last four or five years and yet we still manage to always be in that top echelon.
"Our challenge off the park has always been to hold on to as many players as we can to keep that continuity and this is the year I think we've probably done it the best."
Whether results such as fourth, sixth, seventh and sixth qualify as top echelon is a moot point. But they are at least respectable for a franchise near the bottom of the pile in terms of financial clout.
The question is whether the Chiefs can take the step up from respectability to genuine title threat.
Back to that slow start and leaky defence, then.
Warren Gatland, the architect of the Chiefs' defensive system for the past two seasons, is gone. Foster stopped short of pointing the bone at Gatland for the team's frailties, but he did say there would be changes.
"[Gatland's] system was one that took a while for us to get used to. When it worked it was very, very effective.
"We have been playing around with it. The game nowadays is all about line speed anyway, so whether you want to call it a blitz or a rush or a press, everyone is trying to do the same sort of thing.
"We want to generate as much linespeed as we can but we also want to eliminate some of the risks of it."
As for the slow start, after originally thinking the grass was greener when his side was handed season-ending trips to South Africa, successive unsuccessful campaign-opening tours of the republic have left Foster questioning his earlier beliefs.
"We used to always go to South Africa at the end when we wanted to go at the start. The last couple of years we have gone at the start and it has really hurt us. We went over there thinking we'd catch them unprepared and we actually got beaten by some teams that were pretty fired up and ready to go.
"So I don't know if there is a right or wrong theory.
"You can make out of it whatever you want to."
The schedule has been kind to the Chiefs. Seven of their 13 games are at home, including four winnable fixtures in succession from rounds four to seven against the Cheetahs, Stormers, Bulls and Highlanders.
Foster believes he has the personnel for a tilt at the title. Following November's player draft, the beaming coach said he had got everything he wanted from the horse-trading process.
Despite losing utility back Tasesa Lavea to a pre-season injury, he's still happy with his squad.
"We've got enough old grumpy guys to set the standard and we've got enough young guys to challenge them, so I like the balance."
With just Richard Kahui and Callum Bruce listed as midfielders, the Chiefs look light in that area.
But Foster insists the versatility of Mils Muliaina and Dwayne Sweeney means they won't get caught short.
He's also happy with his restocked loose forward ranks, where draftees Hayden Hopgood, Faifili Lavave and Tom Harding have made strong early impressions in place of departed veterans Marty Holah and Steven Bates.
Gatland's departure for Wales may mean Foster is no longer looking over his shoulder, but he insists that was never the case anyway.
"There is always pressure on a head coach and the minute we think it is our job just as a right then we are in trouble.
"Whether Gatty is there or not this is no different to any other year. I am under pressure."
