Victorian skipper Cameron White admitted securing the Sheffield Shield through an outright victory was more satisfying than last season when a drawn match delivered the crown.
Victoria batted the visitors out of the decider at the MCG when it amassed an insurmountable lead of 639 late on day four before finally declaring 10 overs before stumps.
And when Queensland survived that testing period unscathed, another drawn final became a very feasible possibility.
But the Bushrangers, led superbly by Bryce McGain (4-70) and John Hastings (3-25), managed to bowl out the Bulls on the final day to put the exclamation mark on a remarkable comeback from the hosts who were in a world of trouble at 6-75 in the first innings.
"(We won it with) 40 overs to spare too so maybe we should have batted on a bit longer," White quipped post-match.
"It is nice to win, there's no doubt about that. It makes you feel a little bit better and knowing that you’ve got 20 wickets and won the game ... It’s a great effort."
White admitted he wasn't sure if the Shield final would be retained by Cricket Australia as suggestion an expanded domestic Twenty20 tournament might sound its death knell.
But he maintained his support for the format which sees the home team reserve the right to bat as long as it wants in the decider, even if it leads to a drawn contest and subsequently detracts from the season’s climax.
"I think that it’s that hard to make finals ... so to get into and host them I think you reserve the right," he said.
"To do all that work across 10 games of the season, to be able to get a home ground advantage and the other team have to come and beat you on that home ground to win the game so I agree with the format."
This has been the longest-ever season Victoria has been involved in with their Champions League Twenty20 campaign beginning all the way back in October.
And even though the Bushrangers have been hit by numerous injuries and unavailabilities due to national duty, White said he wasn’t surprised by his squad’s resilience which saw it complete the state’s most successful season in 30 years.
Victoria's only-ever domestic double came in 1979/80 when it took out the one-day and Shield crowns and that season was also the last time it had won back-to-back titles in the four-day arena.
"It's a very good effort, (it) obviously shows the depth of the squad (and) probably shows the depth of the fast-bowling department and the skill of the batsmen," White said.
And that resilience came to the fore in the most important match of the season.
The Bushrangers were reeling with six batsmen back in the shed on the first day with less than 100 runs on the board.
But White, who flies out to India in two days to join his Royal Challengers Bangalore team-mates in the IPL, was rapt with his team’s ability to recover from that position to record the greatest runs-victory (457) in the history of the Sheffield Shield final.
The victorious skipper singled out man-of-the-match Matthew Wade for his critical knock of 96 in the first innings which went a long way to putting the hosts back in the match.
"Obviously we were in a bit of trouble but I think ... that one of the things that Hookesy (former coach David Hookes) always drummed into us was (to) win from any position," White said.
"We know what sort of person Matt Wade is, he’s a fighter and he just needed a couple of people to hang in with him and he found those people and we got to one of our measures which is scoring 300 the first time we bat."
"So to get there and do what was required, just get the job done and then ... bowl well and then it went from there."