West Warrnambool posted a stunning 263-run total in its semi-final showdown against Russells Creek on Saturday, but failed to dismiss Creek at the crease on Sunday.

Under new Warrnambool and District Cricket Association rules, the Panthers needed to claim 10 Creek scalps to sew up a grand final berth. They managed just six wickets, leaving the match in limbo.

It meant Creek advanced to its second-consecutive grand final on the back of the drawn result as the Jetty Flat club finished higher than West in the season proper.

Templeton said the non-result was “frustrating” but didn’t blame Creek or skipper Cam Williams for playing the rules.

The second-year leader said the season had been “as successful as it could be without winning a piece of silverware”.

“We can beat anyone, we’ve proved that. Right now we’re the only team that has beaten Allansford and that shows our best is good enough,” Templeton said.

“That helps to get lads committing to cricket. It’s just a tough one to take. I just think everyone involved would be in the same position.

“You’ve got a good team in Woodford who have had their four-peat chance taken away (by the rule change) which is really stiff for them because they’re a good enough team to do it.

“You can’t do much about it though, I guess.”

Templeton, who is venturing to England to play cricket in the Australian winter, said his young side had reached new heights in their development.

“We’ve got to look back at how well we’ve played. We can’t do anything about it – it’s just the situation we’re in,” he said.

“We’ve had the youngest team all year and you go in as underdogs in finals. People don’t really give you too much of a hope.

“We had full confidence that our best cricket is good to beat anyone and I think we proved that this weekend.

“I said earlier in the week that someone would be proved right, and someone would be proved wrong -but I don’t think anyone was proved anything (with the draw).

“We’ve come from seventh or eighth last year and we’ve only added more young players to our team. We haven’t gone out and recruited someone to fill a hole for us.”

Russells Creek skipper Cam Williams said his side was beaten “on all fronts” but played the rules well to secure the grand final berth against Allansford.

“That’s just the perks of finishing second. We’ll really grind hard against Allansford. We had to do that against West,” Williams said.

“We had to do that to try to get into the big dance. Grand finals are funny and they can just go either way.

“If you’re not on your game straight up you can get done.”

The former Nestles leader said his men had confidence leading into the grand final after accounting for Allansford in the Warrnambool and District Cricket Association’s Twenty20 grand final.

“You need confidence. If you don’t, teams get on top of you. You have to go out there with belief that you can get the job done,” Williams said.

“It’s a clean slate on Saturday – it’s 50-50.

‘”Hopefully we can push hard and try to get on top because they’ve been the top side all year.”