Former Warrior Chris Rogers believes he had no choice but to move to Victoria at the end of last season.
Speaking ahead of the Bushrangers' Sheffield Shield clash with Western Australia at the WACA ground, Rogers admitted he'd been 'bitter' over his exclusion from the Warriors' one-day line-up, along with other matters he refused to name, saying if he hadn't changed states those grievances would have stopped him playing to his potential.
The 31-year-old said the move had therefore given his career a new lease of life, allowing him to forget the grudges he may have held against various people associated with the Warriors' team last summer.
But Rogers said he's still determined to prove those people wrong when he pads up to his former team-mates on Friday, adding he's looking forward to giving as good as he gets from the Warriors.
"I still talk to the guys and I'm still quite friendly with them," said Rogers on Thursday.
"To be honest, I actually think they understood why left, so I don't think that there's any resentment."
"I don't bear any grudges, people have their own opinions, but for the time being I didn't really enjoy a certain few things last year and it just probably prompted my move."
"People may think I went for monetary reasons or whatever but that couldn't be further from the truth."
"I just wanted to go and enjoy cricket again and I was finding it a little bit hard here and thought maybe I'd bear grudges that couldn't be fixed and that was probably a bad thing for me, but that's where I felt I stood," he said.
Rogers refused to name Western Australian coach Tom Moody or the Warriors' selectors as people he was specifically upset with last summer, merely saying: "I'm looking forward to maybe proving a few people's opinions wrong, but in the end I just really want to contribute to Victoria winning a couple of games this week."
Warriors skipper Marcus North admitted it was a little strange seeing his former team-mate wearing a Victorian shirt, especially after Rogers scored 166 against the Bushrangers last season on his way to 744 runs overall at an average of 43.76.
Indeed, Rogers and North have teamed up well on previous occasions against the Victorians, the pair putting on a record domestic third-wicket partnership of 459 in October 2006.
Rogers scored 279 in that match, the second highest ever by a West Australian, behind Geoff Marsh's 355 not out in December 1989.
"It's always disappointing to see a player that I've grown up with or a mate I've grown up with and played a lot of my career with leave," North admitted.
"But I think that the reason behind that is to better his career and to further that in both forms of the game."
"Hopefully he misses out both times this week (but) there won't be any extra focus on Chris."
"He'll be just another batsman we'll be coming up against in the opposition and we'll be targeting the whole top order for Victoria like we've done to any team this season."