But despite missing out, other sporting clubs say they haven't given up hope of hosting events and will continue to lobby the council and government to get in on the action.

City Memorial Bowls club general manager Julie Dosser said she was disappointed Warrnambool had been overlooked and asked how much work was done by the council to promote the city.

"I'd like to know to what extent they did go to to put forward the interests of our city," Ms Dosser said.

"I want to know why we weren't successful. How much effort was put into it? I'd like to know the answer."

The questions came as a state government source revealed on Tuesday the city council didn't make any direct approaches about hosting any events.

But the council's chief executive officer Peter Schneider said advocacy was done collaboratively with Regional Cities Victoria and they had also discussed the games with local members of parliament.

Ms Dosser said no one from the city council had contacted her to talk about the possibility of hosting events or to help make a submission.

She said they had spent millions on upgrading their complex in the hope of attracting extra visitors, and hosting the games would have been an ideal way to do that.

"It's pretty poor when your council is not getting out there to promote Warrnambool," she said.

She said it was such a beautiful part of Victoria "why would you not want to get out and promote it?"

Ms Dosser said she watched on on Tuesday as other regional cities celebrated the news they would be hosting events. "You think, 'where's our lot'?"

The bowls events are set to be staged in Bendigo, one of the four regional hubs for the games.

Warrnambool and District Hockey club president Paul Dillon said he would be seeking a meeting with the council CEO and mayor to talk about working together to improve hockey in the region while getting "a piece of the Commonwealth Games pie down here".

Mr Dillon said with hockey set to be played in Geelong, he was hoping some nations could at least use Warrnambool as a training base. He said "if we jump up and down and make enough noise and put forward a pretty good case" there might be opportunities for Warrnambool.

"It's that opportunity now, maybe, for stakeholders like lawn bowls and other areas to potentially work with council to lobby," Mr Dillon said.

"We have the ambition to grow hockey here. It's already in the council's capital works plan.

"So how can we leverage the planned infrastructure upgrade here to then position hockey, but also Warrnambool, as a location for some Games action? Not just hockey, but other sports.

"How can we work together?"

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