COACH Matt Pinniger says his players can return to Bendigo with their heads held high, despite again falling short at the last hurdle in Melbourne Country Week.
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For the second year in a row Bendigo has finished empty handed at Melbourne Country week after going through its pool matches undefeated.
Bendigo suffered a four-wicket loss to Geelong in Friday’s final at the Albert Ground in a game that wasn’t decided until the 100th and final over of the match.
Geelong answered Bendigo’s 7-233 with 6-237, hitting the winning runs with one ball to spare.
“Like last year, we didn’t doo too much wrong, but when you look back on it, another 15 or 20 runs would have been nice,” Pinniger said.
“I thought our bowling and fielding was exceptional all week and was again today, but we probably could have put a bit more pressure on when we had the spinners bowling.
“But I’m proud of the boys efforts and they can come back to Bendigo with their heads held high.
“They put so much effort in for the week, so I’m just really disappointed for them that they couldn’t get over the line today.
“The hardest part of the week is to get to today and then to get so close and fall short for the second year in a row… we have to use it as a learning curve and come back better next year.
“Full credit to Geelong, they were the better side, but we showed there’s not much between the two sides.”
