RIVERINA coach Owen Thompson has called for change after the end of a disappointing NSW Country Championships campaign in Wagga on Sunday.
Riverina went through the three-day carnival winless for the second straight year, saving their most disappointing performance for last.
Taking on fellow winless team Illawarra on Sunday, Riverina went down by six wickets as the visitors easily chased down 155 with more than 12 overs to spare.
Southern-ACT beat Western at McPherson Oval on Sunday to win the Southern Pool and progress to next Sunday’s state final against Newcastle.
Thompson was disappointed with Riverina’s campaign and conceded it was time for a review into how the region approaches the championships.
“We’ve talked about a different program next year and we’re looking at how we can make it better,” he said.
“We didn’t know each other well enough so we’ve got to look at how we can bring them together, more often.
“We’ve got work to do for sure, we know that, and in the next month or two we will devise a plan for next year.”
After going down to Western by six wickets on Friday, Riverina showed improvement on Saturday against eventual winners, Southern-ACT.
Southern-ACT made 5-264 from their 50 overs, only for Riverina to fall 25 runs short at 7-239.
Riverina then finished on a disappointing note against Illawarra on Sunday, crashing to be all out for 152. The visitors chased the runs comfortably with 12 iovers and six wickets to spare.
Thompson said it had been a failed campaign for the home team.
“It was disappointing, you put a lot of planning into it, we aimed to be better than last year and I don’t think we achieved that,” he said.
“We fell away today, which was disappointing. If we showed up today we could have built a side for years to come. But we fell away badly and that is what is disappointing.”
Thompson said Riverina’s bowlers inability to bowl in the right spot consistently, some woeful running between wickets and batsmen being unable to capitalise in the middle of the innings were the three biggest factors in Riverina’s losses.
Thompson said Nat Sariman, Josh Thompson, Zac Simmonds and Nathan Brown were pick of the Riverina players.
Josh Thompson was Riverina’s leading run scorer with 94 runs from three innings, while Sariman hit 57 on Saturday but was run out in all three matches.
David Bolton and Jon Nicoll did well in their one-match stints.
