Queensland captain Chris Simpson denied this season's Sheffield Shield final was 'the one that got away' despite admitting to a tactical error when Victoria was reeling on the first day.
The Bulls ripped through the Bushrangers' top order on Wednesday to reduce them to 6-75 but failed to land the killer blow after young spinner Cameron Boyce was brought into the attack.
A critical knock of 96 from man-of-the-match Matthew Wade then put the hosts back in the contest and the Bushrangers amazingly fought back to record the greatest runs victory (457) in the history of the Sheffield Shield final.
"I don't think it was the one that got away, I think there was a very, very good batting innings from Matthew Wade," Simpson said after the Bulls' thumping defeat.
"I took a risk in giving Cameron Boyce a go there and I thought he would have taken a couple of wickets, he took one and to me that was a really clincher partnership (between Wade and John Hastings)."
"We were in a good position and we made a tactical play to improve that position and some very good batting just took it out of our reach."
Simpson believed the lack of familiarity of inexperienced pace duo Ben Cutting and Luke Feldman to the MCG wicket became evident during Victoria's dominant second innings of 8-591 (declared) and ultimately cost Queensland the Shield title.
Cutting and Feldman could only manage a combined 1-195 in this decisive innings.
"Luke in particular hasn't done hard time on these southern wickets," Simpson said.
"The Gabba is a very, very handy place to bowl if you're on song as we all know and they were on song (this season) and it resulted in a three-hour bowl sometimes."
"So I think Luke and Ben, they do their hard time on these wickets and they'll definitely be stronger for it."
"It was obviously their (Victoria's) plan to try and break us and it did. We couldn't hold it for as long as we needed to."
Simpson agreed that the home team in a Shield final deserved the right to potentially bat the visitors out of the match as a draw is all that is required to hand the hosts the crown.
But he wasn't sure if it was the best way of developing players to take the next step into the national team.
"Cricket Australia and the selectors like the initiative of seeing young players under pressure," he said.
"There was a contest for two out of five days, maybe that isn't actually pressure."
"Maybe they want to see the young players under pressure in big games and that format I don't think produces that."
Meanwhile, Simpson agreed that Queensland lacked another quality batsman this season but wasn't sure if New South Wales dynamo Dave Warner was the answer.
Warner reportedly wants out of the Blues and is seeking a new domestic home for next summer.
"The No.1 thing that I think that Queensland cricket's strength is, and will be taken into consideration is the character (of a player)," Simpson said.
"As Justin Langer often alludes to - character over a cover drive."
"If David Warner the person that he is fits in our suit then great and if he doesn't I'm sure that the No.1 priority, if we do look for another batsman, will be the personality."