After his drought-breaking century and Joel Paris’ all-round brilliance put Western Australia within touching distance of back-to-back titles, Ashton Turner admits there were stages where he thought his Sheffield Shield career was done.

After a near-perfect day three, WA need four more wickets to wrap up Victoria’s second innings with a deficit of just two runs.

It look like the game was going to be over within three days when the Vics slumped to 6-74 before an injured Will Sutherland (40) and Mitch Perry (seven) saw them to 6-122 at stumps and at least made the hosts bat again at the WACA Ground.

Turner scored his first shield ton in 1944 days, a career-high 128, to give WA a 120-run first-innings lead midway through the day, putting together a 105-run stand with Paris (31) who could do no wrong with bat or ball.

It was remarkably just his second shield appearance in two-and-a-half years, getting a long-awaited call-up after veteran run machine Shaun Marsh’s sudden retirement before the final regular-season match against Victoria last week.

“There’s definitely stages where I thought my red-ball career had passed me by,” Turner said.

“There were a couple of factors that go into that, I sat and watched us win a shield last year and couldn’t poke many holes in that side, the boys were playing beautifully and even a couple of guys who weren’t picked in that squad were going really nicely.

“It’s been the same this year, I feel like we’ve got so many players in form and so many guys playing well that deserve their spots and that’s part of the environment we tried to create here at Western Australia.”

The all-rounder brought up his milestone off 190 balls late in the morning session with a quick single off Test off-spinner Todd Murphy on his way to a career-high first-class knock of 128 from 227.

WA were all out for 315 with Turner, who hit 12 fours and a six during his game-changing knock, top-scoring before finally falling to paceman Sutherland who got a well deserved five-wicket haul.

Reliable left-armer Paris backed up his lower-order runs and two first-innings wickets with three in the second including both openers - Marcus Harris (1) and Ashley Chandrasinghe (8) - cheaply.

Chandrasinghe was finally dismissed in the match after his snail-pace unbeaten 46 from 280 balls in the first innings, only soaking up 24 in his second dig before a horror leave which hit the top of off stump.

It took a hanger at mid-wicket from Teague Wyllie off seamer Matthew Kelly to end Campbell Kellaway’s brave 63-ball resistance worth just seven which sparked a mini-collapse of 4-10 including danger man Peter Handscomb for a quickfire 52.

Earlier, Turner’s typically calm and calculated knock beat his previous best score of 110 against Tasmania back in November, 2016 when he notched up a maiden first-class century.

It adds to his impressive finals CV which includes half-centuries in both of the last Big Bash League deciders including a player-of-the-final performance in Perth Scorchers’ thrilling win over Brisbane Heat at Optus Stadium last month.

Paris played beautifully at the other end before getting out to part-time offie Matt Short who grabbed two late wickets.

Turner did it tough in the day with star pacemen Scott Boland and Sutherland impossible to get away, remaining on his overnight score of 49 for 27 deliveries before finally reaching his milestone off 111 with a three through mid-wicket off O’Neill.

The 30-year-old came to the crease at 4-53 midway through day two with his side in desperate need of a rescue mission, losing 4-11 and 3-1 amid a devastating Sutherland spell.

Turner put on 86 for the fifth wicket with fellow all-rounder Aaron Hardie (45) in a counter-attacking stand which shifted the momentum.

It was Turner’s first 50-plus score since December, 2018 against Victoria at the MCG and first triple-figure score since his 101 not out in November, 2017 against Queensland.

WA finish ahead on first-innings bonus points, 1.7-0.6, which means Victoria need to win outright to lift the shield for the first time since 2018-19.