Werribee was left with that same hollow feeling after another failed Sub-District cricket finals campaign.
The ‘so near, yet so far’ story will endure after the Tigers once again came up empty in their search for that elusive flag.
Even captain-coach Mitch Johnstone, who only arrived at the club in the off-season, is feeling the burden of history.
“We’ve fallen short in three of the last four years in semi finals or finals appearances,” he told Star Weekly. “We’ve got to come up with a formula that works deep into finals cricket.”
An agonising one game short of a grand final, Werribee was ousted by the more polished Caulfield in a 114-run loss at Caulfield Park on Sunday.
The Tigers struggled to get a foothold in the match, conceding a hefty 9-242 on day one and only just reaching half of that total to be all out for 128.
“It was pretty comprehensive in the end,” Johnstone said.
Jonathan Burton was outstanding with the new ball for the Tigers, taking 5-67 off 28 overs.
The seamer was able to extract the most out of the wicket for the visitors.
It was continuation of a fine second half of the season for Burton, who battled away through eight second XI matches before he was called up to the ones.
Burton finished with 22 first XI wickets at an average of 10 in the last seven games.
“He’s had a really strong finish to the year,” Johnstone said. “He’s gone up another level.”
Werribee was a little too expensive with the ball for Johnstone’s liking.
Burton aside, it was a so-so performance from the Tigers bowlers.
“We were okay, we weren’t terrible, but they probably got 20 or 30 more than we would’ve liked,” Johnstone said.
With the firepower in the Werribee batting line-up, a target of 243 was seen as achievable.
Unfortunately, the Tigers batsmen began hesitantly on Sunday, and never recovered.
“We were very patient at the start, but probably too patient,” Johnstone said. “Our mindset was that we wanted to get a solid base.
“We just didn’t put enough scoreboard pressure on and eventually the wickets accumulated.”
There were starts for Matt Dean (35), James Freeman (32), Marcus Worrall (24) and Shaun Dean (22), but none were able to take the game by the scruff of the neck for the Tigers.
Having struggled to 6-128, the Tigers lost their final four wickets for no runs, leaving them well short of the target.
“Our middle to lower order batting hasn’t been exposed throughout the course of the year and today, when we needed it most, it probably fell a bit short, so that’s something we’ll address in the off season,” Johnstone said.
“Our key pillars with the bat either missed out or didn’t capitalise with a big score.
“We’ve relied heavily on them all year and that reliance probably came back to bite us a bit today.”
Caulfield will fight it out with Oakleigh in the Sub-District south-west group final, while Mt Waverley and Bayswater will meet in the north-east final.
