Despite going through the first half of their Orange District Cricket Association first grade comeback with one solitary win over Centrals, Brakenridge said ‘Tahs were not out of the hunt.

“I think we would need a few things to go our way to qualify for the finals,” Brakenridge said.

“We are definitely still aiming to play finals cricket, but realistically we probably shouldn’t be thinking we will.”

Brakenridge said the key to turning his team’s season around was consistency.

“If we can get a bit of consistency about our line-up, and then on the field as well, we’ll keep getting better and better,” he said.

“And on the field too, one week we’ll bowl brilliantly, then the next we’ll bowl horribly. We’re doing one part of the game well each week, but letting ourselves down in the others.”

Brakenridge highlighted his team’s improvement as the main highlight of the first 10 rounds, along with three particular players’ performances.

“That’s one thing that is very encouraging for us is the development we’ve gone through so far,” he said.

“Jeffrey Chapman, Hugh Brown and Craig Sugden have all been standouts for me so far. Chappo just sort of filled in in first grade, and he’s been one of our best bowlers so far. The other two have really cemented their spots too.”

“We’ve improved 100 per cent on the start of the season and started putting ourselves in winning positions in games.”

One such game was against Kinross in round 10. After having Kinross 2-0 in the first over, Waratahs let the pressure off the students, who eventually scored 164. Waratahs fell 56-runs short in their chase.

“We were really disappointed with the Kinross game,” Brakenridge explained.

“We should have won that really, but we were short a bowler. If we can put our full-strength team on the paddock and perform a bit more consistently we should be able to get a couple more wins up, probably over Kinross and Centrals. But we might be able to shake up one of the top three as well.

“Any possible finals appearance after that would be a bonus.”