Dubbo’s Dan French, who coached the 13s boys side and has been heavily involved with the Cyclones program for a number of years, felt the fact there was so much disappointment about not being in action on the final day of the campaign shows how far the group has come.

“Kids are disappointed to bow out in the semi-finals while a few years ago we’d be celebrating semi-finals,” French said.

“It’s all about raising the standard.”

The Cyclones under 13s and under 15s girls sides both failed to make finals at Toowoomba while the 13s, 15s, and 17s boys all finished in third spot in their respective divisions.

That booked a place in the minor semi-finals but each of the three teams lost those games on Friday afternoon.

French’s 13s side lost a thriller, going down by two runs to fierce rivals NSW Metro in a match which went down to the final ball.

The 17s lost by just nine runs in their semi against Queensland while the 15s side suffered a 15-run loss to South Australia.

There were a number of Dubbo players at Toowoomba, with Anthony Atlee in the 13s and Tom Coady and Paddy Nelson in the 15s, while Thomas Nelson and Tom Atlee were part of the 17s team.

As well as that, many of the coaches and support staff for the Cyclones sides were also from Dubbo.

“It’s still very successful,” French said of the entire nationals campaign.

“The kids are getting used to playing at the end of the week and I think we’re still punching above our weight as country kids.

“The 17s are probably right to think they had a team which could go all the way but it’s hard, you can’t go into any game thinking you’re going to win because so much can change.”