After suffering narrow grand final defeats the past two years, Bendigo was well off the Provincial Group pace this campaign, finishing as the only team without a win.

Bendigo’s day four loss to Bairnsdale, coupled with Traralgon’s win over Sale-Maffra, means Bendigo finishes in last spot and its unbroken run in the top division that began in 2000 and included title wins in 2007 and 2010 has come to an end.

“This is obviously as low as it can be… the boys are all really devastated,” BDCA coach Matt Pinniger said.

“It has been a long and tiring week and to finish off like this is horribly disappointing.

“There’s no sugar-coating the fact that we just weren’t good enough throughout the week.

“We played some good patches of cricket, but couldn’t do it consistently enough with either bat or ball.”

Bendigo suffered a six-run loss to Bairnsdale at Mordialloc’s Walter Galt Reserve on Thursday in what had become a must-win game during its chase of 9-198 after Traralgon had scored an early victory over Sale-Maffra.

A 103-run partnership for the second wicket between Shane Koop and Ben DeAraugo gave Bendigo a platform to launch from, but the middle-order lost its way, suffering a collapse of 5-14 to fall from 1-125 to 6-139.

DeAraugo was the first of the five quick wickets to tumble for a Melbourne Country Week career-best 57 off 117, with Koop (38 off 102) falling soon after.

The collapse put Bendigo on the backfoot, with the side eventually all out on the fifth ball of the 50^th over for 192.

Taylor Beard finished unbeaten on 39, but the scorecard had a familiar look about it with not enough contributions.

Earlier, Adam Burns (2-31) and Adrian Pappin (2-18) took two wickets each for Bendigo in Bairnsdale’s tally of 9-198 after it was sent in.

Pinniger says the fact Bendigo has dropped to division two won’t deter him from putting his hand up to coach the squad again next year, and hopes BDCA players will have the same mindset.

“It’s certainly going to be no easy feat to get ourselves back up to Provincial Group unless we get the buy-in from the players,” Pinniger said.

“From my point of view, if players make an excuse next year that they don’t want to play because it’s division two, that’s just a cop-out. It’s still representing the BDCA.”

• Final standings: 

Geelong – 64.84

Warrnambool – 53.09

Morn-Peninsula – 52.13

Ballarat – 41.19

Bairnsdale – 37.10

Sale-Maffra – 27.53

Traralgon – 25.62

Bendigo – 14.45