![Jono Cook is Illawarra's only representative in this season's NSW Country side. Picture: KIRK GILMOUR Jono Cook is Illawarra's only representative in this season's NSW Country side. Picture: KIRK GILMOUR](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/b609e80a-c3ef-440b-a2a0-f16ccdabbba6.jpg/r0_0_3246_2041_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
AUSTRALIAN COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
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Illawarra off-spinner Jono Cook is confident he can help NSW bring the coveted Australian Country Championships crown back to its rightful state in 2015.
The Bush Blues watched the title slip away earlier this year in one of the tightest Championships in recent history.
NSW would have won the tournament until it went down to Queensland in a last-round Twenty20 clash.
The Blues finished third.
That was Cook's first taste of representing NSW at a senior level and while he enjoyed the experience, he admits the end result was disappointing.
Now he's on a mission to return the Blues to the top of the national rankings.
"I think we're going to be strong, we've been strong for the last five or six years and happened to win it a couple of times," Cook said.
"We'll be very competitive.
"Last year we only just missed out ... we lost a Twenty20 and if we won that game we would've won the carnival.
"We'll be very strong again and definitely going for the win."
Cook is one of 13 players selected to represent the state on the back of the NSW Country Championships last month.
He took five wickets in three games with an economy rate of 3.8, and contributed 52 runs with the bat including an innings of 35 not out.
Cook is the only Illawarra representative in the NSW squad.
Former state captain Graeme Batty has moved to Sydney and is ineligible for selection, while regular Blues player Dale Scifleet has been left out.
Cook admits it will be a strange feeling to be the only Illawarra player at the Country Championships.
"I'm a bit disappointed that a couple of the other guys didn't get in," he said.
"We've got some very talented guys in the Illawarra.
"Bit disappointed guys like Mitch McCrae didn't make it, he made a very good hundred at the carnival.
"But it's obviously very hard for the selectors to make a decision, they have to take in a lot of aspects."
Cook is in some hot form with both ball and bat for local club Keira this season, despite missing a handful of early games while playing for a club in Ireland.
He has taken six wickets in four games as captain of the Lions, and returned 138 runs at an average of 34.5.
The club however, is on the bottom of the ladder after winning the first grade premiership last season.
Cook is confident the team slump won't last long.
"We have had a rough start, no denying that," Cook said.
"It's been hard for a couple of the younger players stepping up to a level they haven't played before.
"I think they're starting to warm to it.
"I think after Christmas we are going to step up."
The NSW squad will gather for a training session at the SCG in Sydney this Saturday, then meet again before the Championships begin in Bendigo on January 5.
Before then, Cook will line up in an Illawarra XI to take on the Sydney Sixers in a Twenty20 trial in Wollongong next week.