With four games remaining, the Blues are currently fourth, two wins behind competition leaders Victoria who they face at MCG next Wednesday.

It leaves them facing a huge task to earn hosting rights for the Shield final but – with the SCG out of action in March due to beginning of the AFL season – Cricket NSW chief executive Andrew Jones confirmed the recently upgraded North Dalton Park is firmly in the running should it become a possibility.

“The first job is to get into the Shield final, the second job’s to host it,” Jones said.

“We haven’t resolved where the final would be and we haven’t discussed it with [Wollongong] council yet but Wollongong would be very high on the list. Our last home game is at North Dalton Park and the SCG is unavailable.

“Council’s been very proactive and we always like to work with councils who want to get things done and the experience has been nothing but positive so far with Wollongong. We’ve been really impressed with the upgrade and the willingness to make things happen.

“I think that puts Wollongong in a very good position, if we’re in a good position, but we haven’t crossed that bridge yet. We’re two wins behind Victoria so certainly hosting is a big ask at this point.

“Once Big Bash is finished and the first Shield game is out of the way we’ll have a good idea of what the chances are and if the chances are reasonable we’ll sit down and have a chat with council then.”

Wollongong is fresh off hosting the hugely successful Australian Country Championships while North Dalton Park hosted an Australian Futures League fixture in November.

That match saw NSW fall six runs short of ACT’s 478 in a thrilling final-day run chase that proved the pitch can hold up for a full four-day clash.

NSW will also play Tasmania in their final home game of the Shield season on February 25 in Wollongong and Jones said the feedback about the venue has been nothing but positive.

“Obviously the [February 25] match is still to be played but the feedback from the players who played in the Second XI game was very, very positive,” Jones said.

“You want to see a result in a Shield game and often the challenge with venues that don’t host a lot of first class cricket is that the wicket can be a little bit slow and low.

“That wasn’t the case at North Dalton. The wicket was excellent for batting, had good carry, good pace, the batsmen scored quickly and it was pretty attractive cricket so that was a big tick for us.