Proud Victorian coach Chris Rogers conceded his team may have “played our grand final” in last week’s win over Western Australia after going down to the same opponent in the decider.

The Vics went from wooden-spoon fancies midway through the season to finalists after turning around a five-game unbeaten run to win their last five on the trot and pinch second spot from Queensland.

The fifth was against WA at the WACA Ground last week but they couldn’t repeat the dose this week, finishing runners up for a second year in a row.

“It’s been a huge effort by this group, to win five games on the bounce to get into a Shield final,” Rogers said.

“We couldn’t put a foot wrong, and it’s been carried a lot by that seam attack.

“Then a couple of little things started to happen before this game, it was almost like we played our grand final last week against WA but we still felt if things went our way we were going to be a really good chance (in the final).

‘I think we’ve played a good game at times, but we’ve come up against some exceptional opposition as well.”

Rogers was full of praise for lion-hearted all-rounder Will Sutherland, who played through a back injury to grab his second shield final five-wicket haul and back it up with a quickfire 83 with the bat.

Sutherland finished with a competition-high 41 scalps for the season at an average of 19.92.

“He’s got a bit of a back issue at the moment which makes his performance with the ball all the more impressive,” Rogers said.

“There’s a bit of pain there he’s had to bowl through. That’s his second shield final five-for, that’s an impressive statistic and he deserved it too.

“He ran in the whole game, even with pain. We know the kind of character he is, that’s why we made him captain.

“He’s such an important player for us and I think he’s got a really big future.”

Rogers felt like luck the rub of the green had been in WA’s favour the entire match.

“I know it will sound a bit shallow but we don’t feel like we’ve had a lot of luck in this game,” Rogers said.

“We beat the bat of WA about 40 times and that’s quite extraordinary really.

“A couple of those things go your way and then it’s a very different game.

“That’s the way it goes and it’s a young group that I think will learn a lot out of it.”