Dubbo Regional Council staff will be preparing the pitches for a state carnival to be held next week, leaving organisers with the options of finding an alternate venue or postponing.

Thankfully for Dubbo, which had earned hosting rights with an undefeated preliminary campaign, all parties agreed to the latter.

“Credit to Western Zone and also Bathurst for agreeing to defer the game. Bathurst could easily have asked for it to be played there,” Dubbo captain Jordan Moran said.

“It basically came down to a lack or prior organisation. The date wasn’t booked with council as we didn’t know we were hosting the game until we won last weekend.

“Thankfully Wes Giddings from council realised there was an issue and we contacted Colin Wood from there.

“We had earned the right to host the final, so thankfully we’ll be able to do that down the track.”

Dubbo selectors had named a strong side for the final, with Moran to lead a squad that included the likes of Mitch Bower, Greg Buckley, Darrel Williams and Ben Strachan.

Young guns Henry Railz, Corey McDean, Brock Larance and Tom Atlee were also among the squad.

But it remains to be seen who will be available when a replacement date for the final is found.

“(Western chairman) Mark Frecklington is looking to find a couple of suitable dates and we will go from there, but at the moment we don’t know exactly when the match will be played,” Moran said.

“Our calendar is pretty free from a rep cricket perspective, but people may have prior engagements on certain weekends.

“It’s a bit up in the air at the moment but we can’t control it so we just have to wait and see what happens.

“Hopefully though, we’ll be able to keep the same squad that we named for the final regardless of when the match is actually played.”

While the deferment is a headache, it may actually help Dubbo as it will give the skipper time to recover further from recent hand surgery.

Moran played through the recent Australian Country Championships but aggravated the injury, and with McDonald’s Megahit and Whitney Cup cricket on his agenda on Friday and Saturday, the rest on Sunday will do him good.

“I got through the 12 games there but I took a diving catch in the Twenty20 final that stirred it up a bit,” he said.

“Given I’ve got cricket on Friday and Saturday, missing Sunday probably isn’t a bad thing as it will get a day of rest there.

“But ideally we would prefer to get the final played before our club cricket finals roll around but that depends on what Bathurst’s schedule looks like as well.”