Taieri Cricket player-coach Dwayne Weir hopes a change in format will bring a change in fortunes for the struggling club.
Taieri has managed only three wins from the season so far, but Weir believes the start of the declaration format presents a fresh start.
Batting had been the club's Achilles heel this season and the club again struggled during the weekend, as it crawled to 81 all out off 40 overs against University-Grange in the first round of the declaration competition.
Taieri put up a fight, but University-Grange eventually got home with four wickets to spare.
Weir said the players hoped to put their struggles behind them and the declaration format provided the perfect opportunity.
''It allows bowlers to have a bit more of a spell,'' he said.
''You can work into a decent bowling partnership.''
It allowed the club's bowlers - its strength - to work for wickets rather than push for them by ''not giving away silly extras and sitting back and letting it happen'', he said.
It also provided an opportunity for the club's batsmen to prove themselves.
''With the longer format, guys can bat within themselves, make good decisions and bat for longer,'' Weir said.
''If they can start to do that, we should come out on the right side of the ledger.''
That opportunity starts this weekend against North East Valley.
''As it stands, we are at the bottom of the table and everybody's trying to pick us off as the easy win and we have to work really hard not to give that away,'' Weir said.
''We have to keep working hard but there's no lack of spirit.
''We have let down our Mosgiel and Taieri community and we think about that regularly. We need to ... show we have a lot of heart and respect for our community and hopefully two or three wins [shows that].''
