‘Canes won’t be swinging their axe

Franchise will stay loyal with squad

HURRICANES coach Adam Griffith is adamant the squad does not need a major overhaul, despite missing Big Bash finals for the first since his involvement with the franchise.

Hobart’s campaign came to an end at the MCG on Tuesday when, only needing to defeat wooden spooners Melbourne Renegades to lock up fourth spot, it crashed to an 11-run defeat chasing just 150.

After joining the Hurricanes for BBL07 as an assistant under South African Gary Kirsten, a tournament where the side reached the final, Griffith became head coach in 2018.

In his first season, Hobart secured the minor premiership before losing to the Melbourne Stars, and scraped into the revamped top five last summer only to go down to the Sydney Thunder in the eliminator at Blundstone Arena.

On paper this year’s squad was arguably its strongest but it was unable to produce when it mattered most.

“It’s always disappointing when you don’t achieve what you want to achieve and I take a lot of responsibility for that,” Griffith said.

“I’m the coach of the group and we haven’t achieved what we want to achieve.

“I’ll look inside to what we’ve done and what I’ve done and how we can be better.

“I thought we were a couple of games away from being up in the top couple so that’s probably the disappointing thing from my end, not just (Tuesday) but through the season. There’s a bit of work to do there but I still think we’ve got some outstanding talent. We have just got to mould that the right way.”

Hurricanes supporters took to social media following the defeat to vent their frustrations at a season which promised plenty but came up emptyhanded.

Griffith urged the faithful to stick with the team.

“I don’t look at social media so I don’t know what they are saying but from a supporters’ perspective, we’re hurting as much as what they are.

“What we also need to keep in mind is that it’s such a good competition, every team has a really good list.

“We go into a season thinking we have a great list and we have to because we believe that, but every other team thinks the same.

“We’re one performance away from finishing second or third on the ladder and getting into finals.

“It’s just those couple of moments we didn’t quite come through for the tournament and that’s disappointing.”