Western Zone wins the 2022/23 Country Colts carnival at Queanbeyan

Dean's group of talented cricketers finished the five-match carnival in Queanbeyan undefeated, with their closest two games coming on the opening days.

When it comes to week-long carnivals, Dean knows you want to be playing the best cricket possible towards the end.

However, he believes the group which were skippered by Bathurst's Blake Kreuzberger took a lot of confidence out of their opening two matches.

"The first two games were last-baller, the third was a little bit easy given that we won by three runs," he said.

"I think what that did was let the boys know we can win from anywhere, especially when it came to the longer games, we had a bit of trouble on Wednesday because they played like a T20 but we won comfortably.

"The best batting performance was today [Thursday], our bowling just got better and better each game."

While the batters starred to open the week, a pair of Bathurst bowlers delivered in the closing fixtures.

Bathurst City's Connor Whale and Rugby Union talent Flynn Taylor each took wickets over the last two matches to give the batters a low total to chase.

While those two bowlers' statistics stood out, Dean believes everyone who rolled the arm over did a job when required.

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"They found their lines and lengths, they were a little bit off over the first day or so," he said.

"But definitely on Wednesday and Thursday they corrected it, they bowled really nice channels and gave nothing away in those first few overs."

Western headed into its last game against Central North requiring a win to take out the title and like Dean mentioned, the side saved their best performance for last.

Whale led the way with the ball taking 5-35 from eight overs, while Lachlan Rummans' 2-27 also kept things tight.

Chasing 131 for victory, Fletcher Hyde (51) and Hugh Sienkiewicz (48 not out) were brilliant with the bat before Kreuzberger added the finishing touches with 15 not out.

Not since the likes of Ryan Medley, James O'Brien, Jordan Moran and Dan Hughes in 2006/07 had Western won the carnival, with this season's crop breaking the drought in impressive fashion.

Having coached some star-studded sides which have underperformed in the past, Dean believes winning the opening match of the carnival was crucial towards Western's title hopes.

"The interesting thing was over the last five years we've lost the first game but come home really strong to finish second or third," he said.

"A big focus for us was trying to correct that, we figured it was trying to get the team to bond a little bit better.

"We figured because it was such a big zone that it was difficult to do that because you are spread so far apart.

"We spent a bit of time over the weekend before having some team creative stuff, we did a little bit of that before we came here.

"I think that was a big part of it, we were really able to bring those boys together, everyone played for the team rather than 13 individuals."

Winning a four-day carnival is something Dean knows isn't an easy achievement but the coach also knows it took all 13 players in the squad to perform at different times.

"Everyone had a day out, Connor [Whale] took five-fa today [Thursday], and I think Flynn took four wickets yesterday," he said.

"Fletcher Hyde made a 50, Luke Hunter got runs as well so I think everyone had a day where they got wickets or runs.

"If you look at the stats it is very even across the board, no one didn't perform their role.

"That's what makes these carnivals work, you need everyone in the team to contribute."

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