Queensland coach Trevor Barsby has admitted the Bulls batsmen may be carrying mental scars in the wake of a seven-wicket loss to Victoria in the Ford Ranger Cup match at the Gabba.
The Bulls started the game in frenetic fashion, but after reaching 0-69 in the 13th over, proceeded to lose five wickets for just 30 runs on the way to finishing at 9-222 from their allotted 50 overs.
Brutal batting collapses have been a recurring factor in Queensland's season to date, only earlier this week the Bulls crashed from 2-186 to be all-out for 245 in a Sheffield Shield match against the Bushrangers.
Barsby conceded after his side's comprehensive loss to Victoria that the Bulls' failures with the willow may have more to do with their mindset than anything else.
"You see the guys train, they're all training well at training, they're not throwing their wickets away and they're using their time in the best possible way," Barsby said.
"But it's just mental preparation for a game of cricket."
However the new Bulls coach was not about to hit the panic button.
"We're not going to call in the sports psychologists and go through that mode, cricket can be fickle…confidence is a big issue for everybody."
"There's no point for crisis meetings or any of those sorts of things at this stage, we didn't execute our plans well enough with the bat, and then we didn’t follow it up with the ball, so the guys are well aware that they let themselves down today."
"There's obviously issues there we need to look at, how we play the short ball is a good place to start."
One man who caused plenty of trouble for the Bulls with his quick short deliveries was Shane Harwood.
Harwood caught both Andrew Symonds and Greg Moller off-guard with short-pitched deliveries that they failed to negotiate and instead popped up simple catches.
Bushrangers skipper David Hussey paid tribute to the veteran paceman's ability to extract bounce from the pitch.
"He's a strength of ours, he comes in and ruffles a batsman up, he's sort of our enforcer," Hussey said.
"He's a fine fast bowler and he's in great form and hopefully it continues, not only for him but for Victoria, because if he stays fit and healthy, we're definitely going a long way to winning championships."
Harwood (2-18) only completed the eight overs before he was forced with the field with cramps.
Hussey believed the move was precautionary more than anything in a match that he was very happy with.
"I thought it was a 300-plus wicket and two classy players at the top for Queensland started off beautifully and we were thankful we had quality fast bowlers in Shane Harwood and Clint McKay to get us back in the ball game."
After restricting the Bulls to a sub-par total, the Bushrangers were largely untroubled as they successfully wrapped up the match within 40 overs to claim a bonus point.
Opener Rob Quiney crashed a quick-fire 73 off 63 balls and Hussey was full of praise for the man-of-the-match performance.
"He's had a great pre-season and he's reaping the rewards as we speak…Rob can just free his arms and back his own ability."