Drought-breaking Shield win the pinnacle for WA: Turner

Even before his side claimed their third 50-over title in five years in a thrilling, see-sawing final against NSW on Friday, Western Australia captain Ashton Turner already had one eye on breaking the state's 23-year Sheffield Shield drought.

For all of WA's white-ball prowess – which includes making four of the past five one-day finals and the Perth Scorchers claiming a record fourth KFC BBL title this year – the state hasn't tasted success in Australia's foremost domestic cricket competition since 1998-99.

It's a blemish this summer's two-time championship-winning skipper is determined to rectify.

Ahead of Friday's Marsh Cup final, Turner said it was "no secret" WA were prioritising winning the Marsh Sheffield Shield.

"Publicly in West Australian cricket, we've made no secret of the fact that we're prioritising winning the Sheffield Shield, that's been at the top of our agenda for a couple of years now," the 29-year-old said.

"You can see that reflected in our list management, you can see it reflected in how we train and prepare, going all the way back to the start of pre-season.

"Whilst we feel very fortunate that we've got a great record and we've had a lot of success in white-ball cricket, I know the guys are certainly excited by the opportunity that the back-end of the Shield season presents, and we know that for us in domestic cricket the ultimate reward is to win a Sheffield Shield."

On Friday, in the midst of celebrating the state's second domestic cricket title this year, Turner was equally as emphatic.

"It's awesome to win one-day flags and Big Bash titles but we've made no secret of the fact that in Western Australia, the pinnacle for us is to win a Sheffield Shield," he said after leading WA to their 15th 50-over crown.

"For the squad that travels to Sydney next week, we feel like we're right in the mix and everyone's excited to be able to fly back to Perth and play some cricket in Perth – we haven't been able to do much of that this year."

There's a striking similarity between WA's current list and the one that tasted glory last millennium.

Behind the stumps was a 27-year-old Adam Gilchrist, who like Josh Inglis was on the fringes of breaking into the nation's Test team.

Dashing keeper-batter Ryan Campbell (651 runs with a century and four half-centuries) was enjoying another impressive season, much like Josh Philippe, who has notched 434 runs with a century and three fifties so far this year.

A seasoned Tom Moody was their leader and like current skipper Turner boasted international experience, particularly in the white-ball format.

Middle-order batter Rob Baker – then touted as a future star as Hilton Cartwright was when he made his Test debut in 2017 – was dominant in the middle-order, posting his maiden century that season and a defiant 88 in the last round of the regular season to steer WA into the '98-99 Shield final.

And like their current bowling stocks of Jhye Richardson and Ashton Agar, left-armer Brendon Julian and right-arm quick Jo Angel also led an international-quality attack.

Among the others to help WA to their last Shield title were some future champions, such as their 23-year-old opener Michael Hussey, their powerful No.4 Damien Martyn, who also bowled a few handy mediums that day, and 23-year-old Simon Katich, who hit a classy 115 to help his side to a first-innings lead in the final against Queensland.

Unfortunately for the current group, the likes of Inglis and Agar won't be available for the run home to the final due to international duty, while Richardson suffered a hamstring injury in Friday's win.

Turner said he felt "very fortunate" to lead a squad of quality cricketers, particularly in the white-ball formats.

"We feel like we've done a pretty good job over the last seven, eight years of winning silverware," he said.

"It's our responsibility to keep performing well in big games and we know that it's hard to pick the XI. We've got some quality players not playing and it's the responsibility of the guys in the XI to perform really well and keep good players out.

"We love coming back to play for Western Australia. We know the guys are all over the world playing cricket at the moment but there's something really special about playing for our home state, it's something we're very proud to do."

But for all their white-ball success, Western Australia last played in a Shield final in 2014-15 when Victoria clinched a draw to secure the title, and they last hosted the decider at the WACA in 1997-98 when they beat Tasmania to claim the first of their back-to-back triumphs.

If they do go on to win the Shield in the first few days of April, a host of WA and Scorchers stars will join Marcus Harris, Chris Tremain and Cameron White as the only players to win all three of Australian cricket's domestic titles in the one season after the trio featured for Victoria and the Melbourne Renegades in their Shield, one-day and BBL titles in 2018-19.

"It's certainly a rare feat (the treble), something that everyone in domestic cricket wants to set out to achieve," Turner said.

"We've got a couple of big hurdles to go before we can tick those boxes but we're very fortunate to be playing in another final."