Many predicted Western’s hopes of a fourth title in six seasons would come down to the third and final game of the Championships northern pool carnival against Newcastle.

And that’s how it transpired but in Sunday’s clash the star-studded Novocastrian outfit, led by centurion Joe Price, was too strong and won by 63 runs.

Compounding the loss was a broken thumb to Moran suffered while wicket-keeping, a blow set to sideline him for some time.

It meant the Australian Country representative batsmen didn’t come in until late in his side’s innings and there was far too much to do at that stage.

Earlier, Ben Patterson (2/30) and Bathurst’s Matt Stephen (1/31) had reduced Newcastle to 3/22 but then Price entered the fray.

After a slow rebuild the runs began to flow, despite a fine spell from Will Lindsay which yielded 3/26 from nine overs.

But Newcastle had wickets in hand late and “exploded”, according to Moran, to finish with 7/223 from the 50 overs.

Moran confessed he was disappointed to be unable to do his job at the top of the order and despite a 50—run partnership between Darrel Williams (27) and Mitch Bower (24), it was tough going for Western.

The middle order failed to fire, Greg Buckley, Marty Jeffrey and Bathurst’s Ryan Peacock all failed to reach double figures, against a Newcastle attack led by former NSW Blues spearhead Burt Cockley.

Henry Railz (21 not out) held firm late on, his side was dismissed for 160, and Moran said the South Dubbo youngster was one of the real positives for Western at the carnival.

“A few of the debutants stepped up and I was blown away with how well Henry Railz handled himself,” Moran said.

“He won us the game late on Saturday and then he came in today (Sunday) and they were chirping him and didn’t hold back but he didn’t shy away from it. He showed a really mature head.

“We were in a new pool against teams we hand’t played in a long time and it was a challenge but we can be very happy with what we achieved.”