But they also acknowledged not rising to the occasion themselves as their dominating summer ended in calamity.
Chasing 196 to claim the Shield for the first time since 2018-19, Victoria were bowled out for 139 by defending champions South Australia and lost by 56 runs on Monday.
There was some controversy, with Liam Scott claiming the crucial wicket of Victorian young gun Oliver Peake on the last day at Junction Oval, despite it appearing to be a front-foot no ball.
Victorian coach Chris Rogers would not buy into that or other decisions that went against his team.
"I heard (Collingwood coach) Craig McRae one time say 'I want to act like a winner and not a loser' - I'm not going to act like a loser," Rogers said.
But he was emphatic when asked whether the final warranted DRS.
"Absolutely. If you're going to sell this as the sixth Test of the year, then I think they should," Rogers said.
"For the game, you just want to make sure it's given the value it deserves."
He said it was hard to tell whether the Peake delivery should have been overturned.
"If it was the other way around and it was overturned I'd be furious, so I'm not complaining about that," Rogers said.
He said this result hurt more than losing the finals to WA in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, when Victoria had to fight to make it that far.
"This one hurts the most. We went into those games massive underdogs and we spent our tickets trying to get to the final,'' Rogers said.
"This time, we planned well ... but we just didn't get the job done.
"The fourth innings of a game that has a lot of pressure, it does funny things to people. These players will grow from that."Â
15°C